Insurance news

• United tops up limit and restructures retention

  13-06-2016 23:25
  United Insurance Holdings has bought an additional $100mn of limit
  to take its cascading cat cover to $685mn ahead of the 2016
  hurricane season.
  Including its Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) cover
  and collateralised FHCF replacement layers, the homeowners'
  insurer has first-event cover in place of $1.42bn, with an overall
  programme exhaustion point of $1.52bn.
  The renewal included the group's core operating subsidiary
  United P&C, Family Security and recently acquired
  Northeast-focu
  
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• PPL set for official rollout in July

  13-06-2016 23:25
  The Placing Platform Limited (PPL) initiative is scheduled to go
  live in July, The Insurance Insider can
  reveal.
  It is understood that the placing platform, which will allow
  brokers and insurers to quote, negotiate and bind business
  electronically, is targeting a launch across all classes of
  business within two years.
  As previously reported, the PPL board has been working on
  establishing the service for the terrorism sector first, with a
  structured roll-out across other classes to follow.
  The PP
  
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• Postcard from Airmic

  13-06-2016 23:25
  Risk managers and insurance industry professionals congregated in
  the UK spa town of Harrogate last week to attend Airmic's 2016
  conference, which centred on the theme of "new frontiers in
  risk".
  While the title promised a plethora of themes to explore, the
  looming threat of cyber risks dominated the event as the industry
  continues to grapple with the issue and attempts to provide a
  coherent response to the increasing demands of buyers.
  The opening presentation of the conference set the...
  
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• Nephila shrinks Florida book in June renewals

  13-06-2016 23:25
  Leading Florida carrier Nephila Capital has withdrawn
  significant capacity in this year's June renewals, sister
  publication Trading Risk reported last
  week.
  Multiple sources from both the broking and underwriting
  communities said that Nephila's participation on programmes had
  fallen year-on-year, as it quoted higher-than-market rates or
  walked away from softening business.
  As well as these pricing-driven reactions, the competitive
  impact of the carrier's entry into the primary market also made
  i
  
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• Nationwide returns late to buy additional $1bn

  13-06-2016 23:25
  US insurer Nationwide returned to the market at the end of May
  after completing its property catastrophe reinsurance placement to
  buy an extra $1bn of vertical limit, The Insurance
  Insider has learned.
  Sources said that Nationwide had instructed broker Aon Benfield
  to top up its nationwide tower with two additional $500mn
  stretches, reversing a trend over recent years for it to retain
  more tail risk.
  Nationwide joins a number of major cedants that have looked to
  add additional cover for...
  
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• MH370 victims' case against AGCS moved

  13-06-2016 23:25
  A US court has consolidated a case in which the families of those
  killed in the Malaysia Airlines MH370 disaster are suing Allianz
  Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) and its global head of
  aviation Henning Haagen.
  In an order made last week the case - which was first lodged in
  a New York district court - was moved to a court in Washington DC
  where a number of other filings related to the crash are being
  heard.
  In the complaint,...
  
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• Greco makes his mark on Zurich

  13-06-2016 23:25
  Three months after taking the top job at Zurich, and Mario Greco
  has already put his stamp on the global carrier.
  On a media call last week (13 June), Grecounveiled an overhaul of Zurich's notoriously complex
  corporate structure, in what appears to be a move to lay the
  foundations for a wider strategy due to be announced in
  November.
  The restructure will see the life and non-life businesses
  combined and a new regional structure introduced. The CEO said the...
  
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• Fourth generation Meacock to work at Lloyd's business

  13-06-2016 23:25
  SA Meacock & Co has announced that a fourth generation of the
  Meacock family will take an executive role at the Lloyd's
  managing agent.James Meacock is due to join as an executive director from 1
  October.He has sat on the board of the managing agency for the past 10
  years as a non-executive director, but will now take on a full-time
  role as executive director.Currently, Meacock is head of the London North American division
  at JLT Re,...
  
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• Commercial lines carriers look to arbitrage reinsurance

  13-06-2016 23:25
  While commercial lines insurers are attempting to take greater
  advantage of reinsurance arbitrage in the current buyers'
  market, they are not altering their underlying appetite for risk,
  according to Standard & Poor's (S&P).
  The firm noted that in a soft reinsurance market insurers are
  striving to profit by "exploiting" price differences
  between reinsurance and direct insurance.
  "Unlike in the late 1990s, the good news is that US cedants
  have not changed their underwriting appetite and h
  
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• Cathedral hires new treaty head as rebuild continues

  13-06-2016 23:25
  Lancashire's Lloyd's arm Cathedral has brought in Jon
  Barnes as its new head of property treaty, The
  Insurance Insider can reveal.
  Sources said that Barnes, currently deputy active underwriter
  and head of property treaty at Argenta Syndicate 2121, will join
  Cathedral next year after his contractual responsibilities have
  elapsed.
  Barnes, who will report directly to active underwriter Richard
  Williams, will have oversight of the property treaty book, which
  represented 37.5 percent of Cathedral's $
  
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• BTG Pactual hits play on Ariel auction

  13-06-2016 23:25
  A bidding process for Lloyd's (re)insurer Ariel has finally
  launched months after an investment bank was retained to advise the
  company on its strategic options, The Insurance
  Insider can reveal.
  Banking sources said that a number of parties have been issued
  with a confidential investor memorandum after signing
  non-disclosure agreements.
  Ariel is owned on a 50:50 basis by BTG Pactual and the Abu Dhabi
  Investment Council (Adic), and it is not clear how the conclusion
  of the process will affect...
  
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• Brexiters guilty of 'wanton irresponsibility'

  13-06-2016 23:25
  The MP for the cities of London and Westminster has warned that
  people in favour of leaving the EU are taking the UK down an
  irresponsible path.
  At an EU referendum debate hosted by Moore Stephens on 8 June,
  Mark Field told attendees: "Those peddling this disingenuous
  line that the EU will just roll over if we leave and make life easy
  for a nation that unilaterally departs from the organisation are, I
  think, guilty of wishful thinking to the...
  
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• ART cat bond Blue Halo grows to $185mn

  13-06-2016 23:25
  Nephila's fronting partner Allianz Risk Transfer (ART)
  raised the target for its Blue Halo Re cat bond to $185mn from
  $150mn as pricing on the high-risk transaction moved towards the
  upper end of forecasts, Trading Risk
  reported last week.
  The transaction would provide ART with industry loss-based cover
  for US named storms and earthquakes on a three-year aggregate
  basis.
  The three-year aggregate is an unusual feature for a cat bond
  and made the deal too risky for some funds, sources...
  
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• AIG in settlement over fraud allegations

  13-06-2016 23:25
  American International Group (AIG) has contributed to a $310mn
  settlement after it was accused of fraudulently misrepresenting the
  policy limits available in a decades-old class action suit.
  The settlement, which has been 12 years in the making, dates
  back to a case brought by shareholders of MedPartners, a
  prescription benefit company that was subsequently renamed Caremark
  before being acquired by US pharmacy chain CVS in 2007.
  Shareholders sued the firm's board after a bungled merger
  attempt r
  
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• Chubb's Oh moves to XL Catlin to head US E&S

  13-06-2016 19:16
  XL Catlin has named former Chubb executive Stephen Oh as president
  of its multi-line excess and surplus lines (E&S) platform in
  the US.
  Oh, who was most recently president of Chubb Custom Market, will
  direct regional underwriting operations, product distribution and
  development as well as strategic growth plans as he takes the same
  position at XL Catlin.
  Based out of New York, the executive will report to Joe Tocco,
  chief executive of XL Catlin's Americas region.
  Commenting on the appointmen
  
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• Cathedral hires North American cat underwriter

  13-06-2016 19:16
  Lancashire's Lloyd's arm Cathedral has hired Paul Edwards
  as a North American property catastrophe treaty underwriter, the
  company has said in a statement.
  Edwards - a 40-year market veteran - was a property treaty
  underwriter at Cathedral's Lloyd's rival Sompo Canopius,
  where he underwrote a book of US cat business.
  The in-coming underwriter will take on responsibility for
  Cathedral's North American cat book, including its core
  portfolio of small US cedants.
  It is understood that Edwards has wr
  
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• Be Wiser signs £200m Close Brothers deal

  13-06-2016 17:28
  
  Long-term contract renewal is set to deliver £200m worth of funded premiums across both personal and commercial lines.
  
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• Official fraud stats are ‘spurious’, legal campaigners claim

  13-06-2016 17:26
  
  The claim that fraud adds £50 to the average insurance premium is just “plain wrong”, legal campaigners have claimed.
  
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• PI insurers secure important claims aggregation victory

  13-06-2016 17:24
  
  Solicitors' professional indemnity (PI) insurers have emerged victorious - for the time being - with regard to the manner in which they are allowed to aggregate claims, following a recent decision by the Court of Appeal.
  
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• PwC and Z/Yen launch global study into benefits of blockchain

  13-06-2016 16:25
  
  PwC and blockchain consultancy Z/Yen are collaborating on research to identify the potential benefits of mutually distributed ledger (MDL) technology for wholesale insurance.
  
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• PIC seals $1.1bn reinsurance deal with Prudential

  13-06-2016 16:10
  Specialist pension fund insurer Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC)
  offloaded $1.1bn in longevity risk to Prudential Insurance Company
  of America, to cover 2,900 people in the Aon Retirement Scheme.
  The deal is PIC's first large pension insurance transaction
  since the implementation of Solvency II.
  "This deal truly demonstrates that large buy-ins priced
  under Solvency II are still an attractive option for
  trustees," said Bill McCloskey, vice president of longevity
  risk transfer at Prudential Fin
  
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• Perkins Slade reports pre-tax loss before Howden sale

  13-06-2016 16:01
  
  Turnover dropped 2.5% in 2015.
  
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• Blog: Back to work with gusto

  13-06-2016 15:54
  
  There should be a course on how to handle insurance journalism fresh out of maternity leave.
  
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• Marketform rebrands as Neon in break with ‘unprofitable’ past

  13-06-2016 13:43
  
  Marketform has rebranded itself as Neon in order to begin a “new chapter” in the company’s trouble history.
  
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• Copying Norway's EU model will exclude us from big decisions – ABI

  13-06-2016 13:21
  
  The ABI has given its support to the prime minister’s campaign to remain in the EU.
  
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• Copying Norway's EU model will exclude insurers from big decisions - ABI

  13-06-2016 13:21
  
  The ABI has given its support to the Prime Minister’s reasons for wanting to remain in the EU.
  
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• China launches insurance exchange

  13-06-2016 13:06
  China's first insurance exchange platform, the Shanghai
  Insurance Exchange (SHIE), launched yesterday (12 June).
  The platform has an initial registered capital of 2.2bn yuan
  ($341mn) contributed by 91 companies, according to Shanghai
  Daily.
  The exchange will allow for the launching and registering of
  insurance products and derivatives, with a focus on international
  reinsurance, marine and specialty insurance.
  One source told Asia Insurance Review four platforms
  will be set up as part of initial
  
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• Allianz blasts 'half-cooked' insurance stress tests

  13-06-2016 13:06
  Global insurer Allianz has criticised the European Insurance and
  Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa)'s EU-wide stress tests
  for being "half-cooked".
  In an interview with the Financial Times yesterday (12
  June), Allianz's head of regulatory strategy Tobias Buecheler
  said that while insurance stress tests made sense in principle, the
  scenarios in the latest exercise would not produce a meaningful
  result.
  Eiopa's tests look at two scenarios: a prolonged period of
  low rates and a short-term shoc
  
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• ABI urges Brexiters to move away from Norwegian model

  13-06-2016 12:58
  
  Huw Evans called on Brexit supporters in insurance to heed Norway’s warning about the model.
  
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• Specialist drone insurance set to take off says RPC

  13-06-2016 12:57
  
  The fast-paced growth of the UK's commercial drone market is increasing demand for specialist drone insurance, according to law firm RPC.
  
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• Survey: FCA's TCF agenda overloading brokers with information

  13-06-2016 12:22
  
  The FCA’s drive for better behaviour in the insurance broking sector is overloading firms and customers with information, according to the first Insurance Times Broker Regulation Survey.
  
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• Survey: FCA's TCF agenda overloading brokers

  13-06-2016 12:22
  
  The FCA’s drive for better behaviour in the insurance broking sector is overloading firms and customers with information, according to the first Insurance Times Broker Regulation Survey.
  
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• Insurance force Lord Leach dies

  13-06-2016 11:47
  
  Lord Leach, former deputy chairman and non-executive director of JLT Group, has died aged 82.
  
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• Norwegian model is not acceptable alternative to EU membership, ABI warns

  13-06-2016 11:28
  
  The UK would suffer if it swapped European Union membership for a ‘Norwegian model’ of equivalence, the director general of the Association of British Insurers has warned.
  
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• InsurTech Futures: Insurers fear losing business to InsurTech start-ups

  13-06-2016 10:43
  
  Insurers are worried they could lose up to a fifth of business to FinTech start-ups.
  
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• Reith rebrands Marketform as Neon

  13-06-2016 10:09
  CEO Martin Reith has re-launched American Financial Group's
  (AFG) Lloyd's business as Neon as he continues his efforts to
  turnaround the carrier's fortunes.
  Reith has rechristened the business Neon - which is derived from
  the Greek word for new - eight months after he was parachuted in as
  CEO to orchestrate an overhaul of the misfiring Lloyd's
  insurer.
  "The timing is right for us now - it's good that we
  rebrand to move beyond the Marketform heritage," Reith told
  The...
  
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• #Insagepeople: 13 - 19 June 2016

  13-06-2016 09:59
  
  Keep abreast of the movers and shakers in the broker world this week.
  
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• RSA extends telematics deal with Trak Global

  13-06-2016 09:35
  
  Trak Global has extended its contract with RSA to continue providing telematics, policy administration and business information for the insurer’s More Than Smart Wheels offering for young drivers.
  
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• Half of insurers fear 20% of business will be lost to tech start-ups - PwC

  13-06-2016 09:34
  
  Almost half (48%) of insurers fear that up to one-fifth of their business could be lost to standalone fintech companies within the next five years.
  
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• European regulator insurer stress test is ‘half cooked’ – Allianz

  13-06-2016 09:32
  
  Allianz has criticised plans by the EU’s pensions and insurance regulator Eiopa for EU-wide stress tests, calling them “half cooked”.
  
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• Telematics data helps uncover £500,000 fraud - Insurethebox

  13-06-2016 09:28
  
  Insurance fraud cases worth £500,000 has been uncovered by telematics underwriting agency Insurethebox using data collected black boxes inside cars.
  
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• RSA and Trak Global continue partnership

  13-06-2016 01:05
  
  RSA will continue its telematics deal with Trak Global, with the company supporting the insurer’s More Than smart wheels proposition for young drivers.
  
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