Insurance news

• Guenther brought in as Asia Capital Re CUO

  17-11-2015 20:08
  Endurance's former European reinsurance chief Hans-Joachim
  Guenther is to join Asia Capital Re (ACR) as chief underwriting
  officer (CUO), The Insurance Insider can
  reveal.
  Sources said that Guenther will take up the new position on 1
  December, ensuring that he overlaps with outgoing CUO Cindy
  Foo.
  Guenther was formerly CUO of Endurance's reinsurance
  operations, as well as head of its international business segment,
  which comprised its units in Zurich, London and Singapore.
  He held the role betwe
  
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• Everest Re strikes utility and energy deal with Aegis

  17-11-2015 20:08
  Everest Re's US specialty insurance arm, Everest National
  Insurance Company, has entered a strategic alliance with mutual
  insurer Aegis to provide utility and energy coverage, it announced
  today (17 November).
  The new partnership will provide primary admitted coverage for a
  range of lines including workers' compensation, general
  liability and automobile to Aegis members and clients in the
  utility and energy industry, including those involved with
  exploration and production.
  The new alliance is e
  
  Read more

• ATL Marine & Energy raids JLT

  17-11-2015 20:08
  Independent Lloyd's broker ATL Marine & Energy has hired
  four energy brokers from rival JLT.
  James Craven will become managing director at ATL, while Jamie
  Watts has been appointed head of energy. Joanne Hagan and Lianne
  Gillespie have also joined the intermediary.
  Craven and Watts were previously partners at JLT, and have
  worked in the market for more than 25 years, while Gillespie held
  the role of account handler.
  Inaki Bandres, ATL's CEO, commented: "Clients are
  increasingly seeking an in
  
  Read more

• AJG International appoints Newbery to board

  17-11-2015 20:08
  Global broker AJ Gallagher has named Trevor Newbery as a
  non-executive director of its UK-headquartered subsidiary AJ
  Gallagher International, it announced today (17 November).
  Newbery has been in the position since 2 November. He is also a
  non-executive director of Argenta Syndicate Management.
  Most recently, he was a partner in Grant Thornton's
  financial services group, overseeing its general insurance
  regulatory and internal audit practice.
  The executive will also take on the positions of non
  
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• In Series: Windstorms: Hindcast is a wonderful thing

  17-11-2015 18:42
  
  Paul MaiseyPostonline Use of the right meteorological data is vital for insurers.
  
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• In Series: Windstorms: Be prepared

  17-11-2015 18:38
  
  Sam Barrett Postonline Insurers can make sure they’re ready to hit the ground running once a windstorm has passed by studying weather data before the storm hits.
  
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• Lloyd’s broker ATL takes four energy brokers from JLT

  17-11-2015 18:21
  
  New hire James Craven to become ATL’s managing director
  
  Read more

• The Insurance Debate: Professionalism parity

  17-11-2015 18:02
  
  Jonathan Swift Postonline From next week Post and Insurance Age – in association with the Chartered Insurance Institute – will be launching an interactive forum where you will be able to discuss important topical issues, using an Oxford-style debate.
  
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• The Insurance Debate

  17-11-2015 18:02
  
  Jonathan Swift Postonline From next week Post and Insurance Age – in association with the Chartered Insurance Institute – will be launching an interactive forum where you will be able to discuss important topical issues, using an Oxford-style debate.
  
  Read more

• Editor's comment: Join the digital revolution

  17-11-2015 17:45
  
  Stephanie Denton Postonline It’s fair to say that most people wouldn’t describe the current UK insurance industry as digitally innovative.
  
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• Crowded places initiative take-up positive for UK resilience in light of Paris attacks

  17-11-2015 16:43
  
  Peta Fuller Postonline Promising early take-up of the government’s crowded places initiative has been “positive for building the resilience of British infrastructure” if faced with a similar attack to that witnessed in Paris last week, according to Pool Re CEO Julian Enoizi.
  
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• Digital development key for insurers in keeping up with customer demand

  17-11-2015 15:31
  
  Peta Fuller Postonline Insurance companies have been urged to prioritise harnessing digital technology to meet consumers’ lifestyle demands if they are to thrive in the modern business landscape where frequent customer interaction is crucial.
  
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• Legal implications cited by insurers amid complex policy wording criticism

  17-11-2015 14:50
  
  Katie Marriner Postonline Insurers should be cautious about watering down legal policy wordings to make the documents easier to read, commentators have warned, despite new research showing one-third of policies are written for those with a university-equivalent reading level.
  
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• Career Development: Insurance profession diversifies to meet skills shortage

  17-11-2015 14:32
  
  Stephanie Denton Postonline The skills shortage in UK general insurance has reached worrying levels, according to the latest annual Skills Survey from the Chartered Insurance Institute.
  
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• Market Moves - 19 November 2015

  17-11-2015 14:23
  
  Callum BrodiePostonline All the movers and shakers in the insurance industry
  
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• PPOs on the decline, says Willis Re

  17-11-2015 12:49
  The number of Periodical Payment Orders (PPOs) awarded in the UK
  is heading for a decline thanks to a stabilisation in the claims
  environment, according to Willis Re.
  In its latest UK Motor Development Review, the broker said that
  more positive investment conditions set against a falling Annual
  Survey of Hourly Earnings index - which is used as a benchmark for
  PPO payments - have seemingly prompted a drop in the number of PPOs
  awarded.
  In addition, claimants in today...
  
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• CNA names Robusto as incoming CEO

  17-11-2015 12:49
  CNA Financial has announced Dino Robusto, the former head of
  Chubb's commercial and specialty lines business, will become
  chairman and CEO from December 2016.Robusto will succeed Thomas Motamed, who will retire from those
  positions at the end of 2016.The executive spent more than 30 years at Chubb, after initially
  joining in 1986 as a commercial lines underwriter. He went on to
  hold a number of leadership positions there including chief claims
  officer, chief field operations officer for commerci
  
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• Adamczyk become the latest to leave LIU for Aspen

  17-11-2015 12:49
  David Adamczyk is the latest in a slew of senior executives to
  leave Liberty International Underwriters (LIU) bound for rival
  Aspen.
  His exit follows that of former-LIU senior vice president David
  Cohen - who was announced as president and CUO of Aspen's
  insurance segment earlier this month - and Bill McElroy who also
  joined the Bermudian carrier's insurance division as global
  head of environmental.
  LIU promptly appointed Michael Finnegan as CUO of its US
  platform following Cohen's departure for
  
  Read more

• Cyber in focus - the data question

  17-11-2015 12:39
  
  Sam Barrett finds out what brokers need to know about hacking, data, and protection of records in the cyber age.
  
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• Law student gets 18 months for insurance fraud

  17-11-2015 12:31 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  Insurance fraudster jailed after creating fake invoices in attempt to claim £25,000.
  
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• Ifed investigation leads to 18 month jail sentence for Southampton con man

  17-11-2015 12:27
  
  Callum BrodiePostonline A Southampton man who claimed £25,000 on insurance after creating fake invoices for items that he alleged had been stolen during a burglary at his home has been jailed for 18 months.
  
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• CMA private healthcare inquiry expected to rumble on despite positive findings

  17-11-2015 11:21
  
  Katie Marriner Postonline Health insurers are supporting the latest Competition and Markets Authority provisional findings released following an appeal of its final report into the private healthcare market, despite concerns the inquiry could rumble on for several more years.
  
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• Law student jailed for faking invoices in £25k claim

  17-11-2015 11:18
  
  Peter Emiantor gets 18-month sentence following IFED investigation
  
  Read more

• Space support for planned subsidence mapping tool

  17-11-2015 10:34
  
  Peta Fuller Postonline A UK-based service to assess the risk of subsidence using satellite observations and property data is a step closer following a study.
  
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• Homeserve’s UK profit drops 2% in first half

  17-11-2015 09:42
  
  Revenue up 3% despite fall in policy income
  
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• Gallagher MGA Pen chasing Liberty business after motor exit

  17-11-2015 06:30
  
  The MGA wants to speak to brokers looking to move their motor book from LSM
  
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• Willis Re study indicates fall in PPO numbers

  17-11-2015 06:25
  
  News should bring comfort to UK motor insurers and could stabilise rising reinsurance rates
  
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• UK braces for 80mph winds and heavy rain as new storm hits

  17-11-2015 06:20
  
  Met Office issues yellow warnings for storm Barney
  
  Read more

• XL Catlin recruits from AIG to bolster Australia crisis capabilities

  17-11-2015 03:35
  
  Andrew Tjaardstra Postonline Shelley Devane has joined XL Catlin to become its head of crisis management for Australia.
  
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• Willis-Towers Watson deal unlikely: Janney

  17-11-2015 02:30
  The merger between (re)insurance broker Willis and professional
  services firm Towers Watson is "unlikely" to go through
  under the current terms, according to Janney analyst Robert
  Glasspiegel.
  The proposed merger, which was announced in June, came under
  fire last week after a two major proxy firms lobbied Towers Watson
  shareholders to vote against the transaction.
  Janney has now added its voice to the chorus, saying
  it was unlikely that the deal would go through in a note released
  last week...
  
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• Solvency II exaggerates securitisation risks: Insurance Europe

  17-11-2015 02:30
  Trade body Insurance Europe has called for the European
  Commission to reconsider how it implements its simple, transparent
  and standardised (STS) framework for securitisations.
  Under the existing proposals, the scope of the review of
  Solvency II capital requirements is too broad, with not enough
  being done to differentiate between different types of
  securitisations and their relevant risk profiles, the organisation
  said.
  As an example, Insurance Europe said it believed that
  high-quality, senior
  
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• Room for ILS growth in current market: Schultz

  17-11-2015 02:30
  There is room for insurance-linked securities (ILS) capacity to
  grow even without expanding the size of the catastrophe reinsurance
  market, Aon Securities CEO Paul Schultz said at the ILS Bermuda
  Convergence 2015 conference last week (11 November).
  "I don't think we've hit the limit by any
  stretch," he said. However, the broker said that the growth
  outlook hinged on discussions about pricing and returns between
  cedants, fund managers and their investors.
  Nonetheless, a panel of experts polled by
  
  Read more

• New York regulator exploring new cyber security rules

  17-11-2015 02:30
  The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) is
  considering potential new regulations to improve cyber security
  within the financial sector.
  In a 9 November letter sent to regulators, including the
  Securities and Exchange Commission, the NYDFS said that cyber
  security was among the most critical issues facing the financial
  world and posed a particular challenge to regulatory agencies.
  "There is a demonstrated need for robust regulatory action
  in the cyber security space, and the departm
  
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• Nephila extends State National tie-up

  17-11-2015 02:30
  Nephila Capital has added two years to the term of its exclusive
  tie-up with fronting provider State National, extending the
  arrangement until 2019.
  Nephila has agreed to pay minimum fees to write primary
  insurance business using State National's paper, with the
  two-year extension worth another $27mn.
  The deal commits Nephila to paying the fronting carrier at least
  $12.5mn in fees in 2018 and $15mn the year after.
  The new agreement also delayed the timing of the minimum premium
  Nephila has...
  
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• Lloyd's risk monitoring could trigger cyber insurance growth

  17-11-2015 02:30
  Lloyd's latest push for syndicates to measure their cyber risk
  exposures could spur growth in the standalone cyber insurance
  market, the Corporation's director of performance management
  Tom Bolt told The Insurance Insider.
  In a 9 November market bulletin, Lloyd's outlined the
  methodology for syndicates to calculate their aggregate exposures
  across all lines of business.
  The methodology involves syndicates devising at least three
  internal cyber attack scenarios to calculate their gross aggregate
  
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• Lloyd's reverses course on major facilities

  17-11-2015 02:30
  Lloyd's support of the Aon Client Treaty represents a
  turnaround on its view of broker facilities, following its strong
  opposition to both the Aon-Berkshire Hathaway Sidecar and Willis
  Global 360 just two years ago.
  Then finance director Luke Savage criticised Berkshire Hathaway
  for "piggy-backing off the expertise of Lloyd's" and
  for not doing "any of the hard work" performed by the
  market's 2,500 underwriters, although the Corporation was for
  the most part diplomatic in its public language on
  
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• Lloyd's players welcome Aon Carrier Link

  17-11-2015 02:30
  Lloyd's insurers Hiscox and Barbican have both welcomed the
  Aon Carrier Link initiative as a move that could potentially
  increase market access and deliver new premiums into
  Lloyd's.
  Last week, The Insurance Insider
  revealed that Aon was set to enable Lloyd's syndicates to
  connect directly to its global retail network, in a move that would
  give participants the ability to access a material portion of its
  almost $80bn premium global insurance book.
  A Hiscox spokesperson told this publication that
  
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• Kelvin tops premium target

  17-11-2015 02:30
  AM Best has affirmed its A- rating on Kelvin Re as it confirmed the
  Credit Suisse-managed carrier had written more than $120mn of gross
  premium during the first nine months of 2015.
  The start-up carrier aimed to build a $100mn portfolio in its first
  year after securing a rating in November 2014.
  It targets global property catastrophe business with some
  exposure to other short-tail lines.
  AM Best said the company had met expectations in its first year,
  but added that...
  
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• Jeworrek: (re)insurers reach their limit on systemic cyber risk

  17-11-2015 02:30
  Munich Re board member Torsten Jeworrek has questioned the
  (re)insurance industry's ability to tackle the systemic nature
  of cyber attacks, adding that state-backed pools are "not the
  answer" to address the growing threat.
  In a statement released early last week (9 November), Jeworrek
  said it was prudent to ask whether the private insurance industry
  was at all capable of insuring cyber risks on a large scale in view
  of the scenarios that could be involved.
  By using exposure limits and...
  
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• Everest Re bulks up new Kilimanjaro cat bond

  17-11-2015 02:30
  Everest Re is set to close its largest cat bond issuance to date
  through the $625mn Kilimanjaro Re 2015 transaction, sister
  publication Trading Risk reported last
  week.
  The deal will provide industry loss-linked cover on a
  per-occurrence basis for earthquake and named storm events across
  the US, Puerto Rico and Canada.
  Everest Re more than doubled the target volume of the deal,
  which helped to maintain pricing in the middle of the initial
  forecast range.
  Kilimanjaro Re will be among...
  
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• Enoizi: Egypt plane crash 'could be a game changer'

  17-11-2015 02:30
  The plane crash in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on 31 October
  could be a game changer in terms of the types of terrorism risks
  the insurance industry is up against, Pool Re CEO Julian Enoizi
  said last week (10 November).
  Speaking at an Insurance Institute of London lecture in the
  Lloyd's Old Library, Enoizi referenced BBC security
  correspondent Frank Gardner when he described the evolving threat
  posed by Islamic State.
  "I'm repeating something I heard from Frank Gardner and
  that is...
  
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• Capita extends Xchanging offer

  17-11-2015 02:30
  UK outsourcer Capita has extended its 160 pence per share cash
  offer for Xchanging after it had commitments for just under 24
  percent of the insurance technology company at the closing date of
  its initial bid.When the curtain came down on its initial offer period at 1pm GMT
  today (16 November), Capita's offer had only been accepted by
  around 14 percent of shareholders.When added to the 9.99 percent stake it already holds, Capita was
  left with a commitment...
  
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• Aon's epoch-making initiatives

  17-11-2015 02:30
  Brokers are always quick to inflate the importance of any
  initiative that they bring to market. Even the smallest tweak to
  the status quo can be characterised as "game-changing" or
  "transformative".
  Well, Aon's twin announcements last week - the Aon Client
  Treaty and the Aon Carrier Link for Lloyd's - are genuinely
  epochal. They point the way to the future of broking in London,
  with capital accessed differently by its client base.
  Careworn and expensive wholesale broking channels will play...
  
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• Aon wholesale job loss fears

  17-11-2015 02:30
  The two major initiatives announced by Aon last week have
  sparked fears of job losses in the professional services firm's
  London operations.
  Both the Aon Carrier Link for Lloyd's and the Aon Client
  Treaty raise the prospect of the intermediary transacting less
  business through its London wholesale arm in the traditional
  labour-intensive fashion.
  Aon currently pushes $5bn of business through the Global Broking
  Centre in London, but some believe that the amount of premium
  placed through the tradit
  
  Read more

• Aon Client Treaty could reshuffle leads

  17-11-2015 02:30
  The way that the Aon Client Treaty is set to operate could see a
  number of the leadership positions on the global broker's
  London book change hands, The Insurance
  Insider understands.
  This publication last week (11 November) revealed details of the
  mammoth facility, which will give Aon's wholesale client base
  access to pre-placed capacity for 20 percent of their
  programmes.
  The key underwriting controls underpinning the facility - in
  addition to the detailed data on the profitability of the book
  
  Read more

• AmTrust leads list of fallers

  17-11-2015 02:30
  AmTrust saw its share price fall by more than 13
  percent last week after announcing plans to raise $383mn through
  the placement of 5 million common shares.
  Some of the money raised would go towards funding the
  acquisitions of Nationale Borg and Republic, the carrier said, with
  the remainder set to be used for general corporate purposes.
  Not including last week's equity raise, in the year to date
  the company has generated around $640mn of capital through a
  secondary common...
  
  Read more

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