Insurance news

• Delay in whiplash reforms means industry has to cooperate to address fraud

  25-10-2016 19:37
  
  The delay to proposed whiplash reforms means insurers have time to assess different approaches to addressing fraud, a Parliamentary committee heard.
  
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• Guy Carpenter revenues flat in Q3

  25-10-2016 16:50
  Guy Carpenter has reported flat organic revenue for the third
  quarter of 2016, down from 2 percent growth during the same period
  of last year.
  On a reported basis, revenues at Marsh & McLennan
  Companies' (MMC's) reinsurance broking arm were flat at
  $260mn for the three months to 30 September.
  Insurance broker Marsh's revenue was $1.4bn, marking organic
  growth of 2 percent.
  Overall, the risk and insurance services division - which
  combines the insurance and reinsurance broking segments - post
  
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• SRA to probe continuing personal injury concerns

  25-10-2016 16:41
  
  Regulator publishes findings of personal injury sector study
  
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• Sentiment Survey Autumn 2016: The results

  25-10-2016 16:40
  
  Ringing the changes: From the SSP outage to the introduction of the Insurance Act and the collapse of Enterprise Insurance, it’s been a busy six months for brokers since the last Sentiment Survey
  
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• Sentiment Survey Autumn 2016: Barbican's Stuart Kilpatrick on the results

  25-10-2016 16:33
  
  What constitutes real value? Barbican Protect’s Stuart Kilpatrick casts an eye over the findings of the latest Sentiment Survey and hones in on what brokers view as key attributes in their insurance partner
  
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• Sentiment Survey Autumn 2016: Barbican Protect's Stuart Kilpatrick on the results

  25-10-2016 16:33
  
  What constitutes real value? Barbican Protect’s Stuart Kilpatrick casts an eye over the findings of the latest Sentiment Survey and hones in on what brokers view as key attributes in their insurance partner
  
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• FOIL welcomes SRA's concerns over personal injury sector

  25-10-2016 16:33
  
  The Forum of Insurance Lawyers has welcomed SRA’s recent thematic review of the personal injury market that suggests that positive progress has been made.
  
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• MCL Insurance welcomes 20 new staff

  25-10-2016 16:27
  
  Roles created due to "phenomenal growth".
  
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• Legal & General is top insurer for shareholders

  25-10-2016 16:23
  
  Legal and General is the world's top value creating insurer for shareholders, according to a new report.
  
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• Transactor to host Pukka's commercial vehicle scheme

  25-10-2016 15:26
  
  Transactor Global Solutions has partnered with Pukka which will see the MGA’s soon to be launched commercial vehicle scheme distributed via the Transactor software system.
  
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• Underlying deterioration points to casualty floor being reached

  25-10-2016 14:45
  Deteriorating underwriting conditions across several lines of US
  casualty insurance business are likely to add further weight to a
  tougher negotiating stance from reinsurers at 1 January.
  In areas such as commercial auto, New York construction,
  builders' risk and environmental liability, poor results from
  attritional and severity losses have driven reserve charges,
  retrenchment and in some cases full exits by insurance
  carriers.
  That has created opportunity in the form of new treaty purchases
  fr
  
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• Swiss Re and Berkshire Hathaway explore legacy alliance

  25-10-2016 14:45
  Swiss Re is in talks with Berkshire Hathaway as part of a $1bn+
  internal restructure of its legacy business that will put important
  new regulations for run-off books in the US to the test,
  The Insurance Insider can reveal.
  If the transaction goes ahead it could pave the way for the two
  industry titans to collaborate on future deals enabled by the new
  Rhode Island legislation, carving up legacy books between
  themselves.
  Sources said that Swiss Re is considering using...
  
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• Rhode Island rules expected to ignite US run-off M&A

  25-10-2016 14:45
  Newly enacted amendments to Insurance Regulation 68 in the state
  of Rhode Island could transform the US run-off market into a hotbed
  for M&A activity, according to a new report.
  The amendments have introduced insurance business transfers,
  which provide a carefully monitored, transparent means of
  transferring some or all of a carrier's commercial run-off
  liabilities to a newly formed or redomesticated reinsurance company
  through a department-approved and court-sanctioned novation
  process.
  The
  
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• Plumb joins Cobalt as active underwriter

  25-10-2016 14:45
  Anne Plumb, head of international open market property at Novae,
  has resigned to become the active underwriter for Cobalt's
  recently approved Syndicate 1438, The Insurance
  Insider understands.
  Plumb joined Novae in June 2014, having previously worked as
  class underwriter for international and corporate property at
  Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group.
  Prior to this, she was deputy head of global property at
  Travelers. Plumb also spent 11 years with Swiss Re in Singapore,
  Australia and the UK before r
  
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• Nephila the cornerstone backer for £150mn Blenheim

  25-10-2016 14:45
  Nephila has struck a deal with Peter Scales' Lloyd's
  start-up Blenheim that will see it become the core capital backer
  for the new syndicate, The Insurance
  Insider has learned.
  Sources told this publication that Nephila had agreed a
  multi-year deal with Blenheim to meet around a third of Syndicate
  5886's capital requirements.
  Scales and other staff will line up alongside Nephila to support
  the nascent syndicate's 2017 underwriting, with Names also set
  to put money on the table.
  Putting together.
  
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• Insurers consider legacy-live reinsurance deals to free up capital

  25-10-2016 14:45
  There is a growing interest from insurers in structuring
  reinsurance transactions that help release capital tied up in
  reserves, in a bid to make their balance sheets more efficient and
  maximise returns.
  According to sources, deals under consideration include loss
  portfolio transfers (LPTs), adverse development covers (ADCs) and
  hybrid reinsurance deals that combine retroactive solutions with an
  ongoing cover.
  Whereas insurers have often looked at traditional run-off
  solutions to shed liabilitie
  
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• Insider View: Scales and Nephila

  25-10-2016 14:45
  At first glance it may seem a somewhat unlikely alliance. The old
  London market traders and the Bermudian ILS fund. Something just
  about as traditional as you can get, paired with the
  non-traditional.
  And, of course, what start-up Blenheim will chiefly offer to all
  of its capital backers is access to US catastrophe reinsurance risk
  - not something that Nephila is ostensibly much in need of.
  But penetrate beneath the surface and it starts to make a little
  more sense....
  
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• Insider View: BaFin's third-country rules

  25-10-2016 14:45
  The reinsurance industry has a clear expense problem. It already
  costs too much to deliver the product - and this is a constant
  refrain of platform speeches from industry luminaries.
  Ajit Jain immediately identified it as a core issue for Gen Re
  when he took over the reins, with additional underwriting leverage,
  reduced management layers and outsourcing all identified as
  possible answers.
  And that is true even in a marketplace where most players still
  operate from key global and regional...
  
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• Insider 30 starts Q3 season in the red

  25-10-2016 14:45
  The first week of the third quarter results
  season saw The Insider 30 group's shares fall 1.3 percent from
  the previous Friday close, as investors became wary over insurer
  earnings for the period.
  Early reporters such as RLI and Travelers, which are usually
  considered industry bellwethers, opened the season with weaker than
  expected third quarter results, which impacted their stock
  performance.
  Shares in RLI dropped by 13.6 percent on the day of its results
  release to close at $59.85 on...
  
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• Final bids due in QBE's $560mn legacy sale

  25-10-2016 14:45
  Final bids are due this week in the sale of a $560mn book of QBE US
  legacy business that has been the source of reserve charges and
  poor performance for the group.
  Last month, The Insurance Insider
  revealed that the Australia-headquartered carrier had put the
  business on the block.
  It is now understood that final bids were expected to be
  tendered this week, with Catalina, Enstar and Armour all thought to
  be in the frame.
  Sources told this publication that...
  
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• Fairfield assembles team of more than 20 at Exin Re

  25-10-2016 14:45
  Serial industry entrepreneur Matt Fairfield now has more than 20
  staff working for him in Zurich as his start-up Exin Re gears up
  for an ambitious launch, with a view of hitting a five-year target
  of $500mn of annualised premiums.
  Zurich-based broking sources said that Exin Re, the reinsurance
  arm of a broader international (re)insurance group that Fairfield
  is launching, is in the final stages of its application for a
  licence from Swiss regulator Finma.
  AM Best will not formally...
  
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• European market's discipline rhetoric heading for 1.1 test

  25-10-2016 14:45
  Following up on the hard line taken publicly at this year's
  Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous, underwriting sources have
  privately stressed that they are determined to halt the downward
  slide of the European reinsurance market at 1 January.
  However, with no business concluded at this stage, the
  market's long-range predictions and statements of intent are
  perhaps more attempts to influence the renewal than to portray
  reality.
  "Still, I think the talk in Monte Carlo this year was more
  than talk - I...
  
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• CNA Hardy cyber head leaves for Axa

  25-10-2016 14:45
  Scott Sayce, CNA Hardy's head of cyber, technology and life
  science, has left the firm to join Axa Corporate Solutions,
  The Insurance Insider understands.
  Sayce's new role at Axa is unclear, but sources suggested
  the experienced underwriter may be initially joining the firm as an
  internal resource, to assist with understanding its own cyber
  exposures.
  Axa Corporate Solutions currently does not write a standalone
  cyber book, but does offer some cyber coverages through its
  liability offerings.
  The
  
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• Berger predicts further M&A

  25-10-2016 14:45
  Insurance carriers must grow just to stand still, Third Point Re
  chairman and CEO John Berger warned as he predicted further
  consolidation in the (re)insurance sector.
  "The global economy is growing at a meagre low single-digit
  number and we're a mature industry," the executive said,
  questioning where future growth would come from for the
  market's established players.
  "If you're not the hunter, you're being hunted -
  you want to be the big fish eating the other guys or you're
  going...
  
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• Marsh parent’s broking profit rises in year to date

  25-10-2016 14:30
  
  Chief executive Dan Glaser hails ‘solid’ growth
  
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• Transactor partners with Pukka

  25-10-2016 13:25
  
  MGA to launch new commercial vehicle scheme via Transactor.
  
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• Insurance and broking group to launch commercial broker

  25-10-2016 12:58
  
  New brand will offer products ranging from aviation to nightclub cover
  
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• Robusto set to take over as CNA leader in November

  25-10-2016 12:51
  CNA Financial has announced that Dino Robusto will take over as
  chairman and CEO of the firm on 21 November, replacing the retiring
  Thomas Motamed.
  Robusto, the former head of commercial and specialty lines at
  Chubb, was tapped to take over the Chicago-based carrier almost a
  year ago, but no official start date was announced until yesterday.
  His move came amid the $28.3bn acquisition of Chubb by Ace last
  year.
  At Chubb, Robusto rose from a commercial underwriter to become...
  
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• QIC records flat profits for first nine months

  25-10-2016 12:51
  Qatar Insurance Company (QIC) has posted consolidated net profit of
  $195mn for the first nine months of the year, up just $5mn on the
  same period of 2015, as softening trading conditions and economic
  headwinds continued to bite.
  The expansive international (re)insurance group's combined
  ratio also deteriorated by 4.6 percentage points to 98.9 percent
  for the period, as the net underwriting result fell 14 percent to
  $151mn due to a number of major losses.
  The nine months to 30 September...
  
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• Punch to become Asia Pacific MD at JLT Re

  25-10-2016 12:51
  Stephen Punch is to join JLT Re as managing director of Asia
  Pacific for regional clients and retrocession, the broker announced
  yesterday.
  Punch joins from Willis Re, where he was an executive director.
  He has also previously worked at Aon and Aon Benfield, as well as
  working as an underwriter for Gen Re.
  Punch is expected to join JLT Re early next year, and will be
  based in the firm's Sydney office.
  Commenting on the appointment Stuart Beatty, CEO, JLT...
  
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• Liberty Mutual temporarily shuts Portland office

  25-10-2016 12:51
  Liberty Mutual temporarily shut its Portland, Oregon office on
  24 October, following the deaths of two of the firm's
  employees.
  "Our heartfelt thoughts go out to the families and friends
  of those deceased and to our employees who worked closely with them
  in our Portland, Oregon office," it said in a statement
  yesterday.
  "In the wake of this tragic event we have decided to close
  the Portland office today. We will have on-site employee assistance
  resources in Portland tomorrow and...
  
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• Telematics firm courts fleet customers with app

  25-10-2016 12:45
  
  Drivers’ behaviour can be monitored using app
  
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• NFU Mutual launches new service to help small farm holdings thrive

  25-10-2016 12:24
  
  NFU Mutual has launched a new policy aimed at helping small farm holdings survive the current economic climate.
  
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• Markerstudy to launch new commercial broker

  25-10-2016 11:19
  
  New brand to offer any type of commercial cover from November.
  
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• Markerstudy to launch new commercial brand

  25-10-2016 11:19
  
  New brand to offer brokers any type of commercial cover from November.
  
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• Less than a month to go until Broker Expo

  25-10-2016 11:15
  
  The event where brokers do business returns to Coventry with a packed programme.
  
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• Heintz to leave Allianz Re for Exin Re 

  25-10-2016 10:45
  Thomas Heintz, head of global agriculture for Allianz Re in Zurich,
  is leaving to become head of crop reinsurance at Matt
  Fairfield's Exin Re, The Insurance
  Insider understands.Exin Re is a Zurich-based start-up reinsurer and part of the
  wider Exin Group.
  Fairfield is planning to establish a broad range of entities
  under the group that source, distribute, retain and reinsure out
  risk to and on behalf of a range of different capital, while using
  the float and fee income...
  
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• Insurers netting extra £1.5bn from monthly motor instalments

  25-10-2016 10:23
  
  Motor insurers are earning an extra £1.5bn a year from motorists paying their premiums on a monthly rather than an annual basis.
  
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• FSCS monitoring Gable

  25-10-2016 09:48
  
  Regulator notes that Gable is still paying claims and confirms it has not yet declared the firm in default.
  
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• Industry voice: helping clients protect their property in winter – part one

  25-10-2016 09:46
  
  In a series of two articles, Samantha Miles, sales director at Vasek Insurance tackles how brokers can help clients to minimise the risk to properties during the cold winter months.
  
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• Insurance bosses urged to collaborate with insurtech start-ups

  25-10-2016 09:15
  
  Insurance company tech bosses struggle to progress with digital strategies
  
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• CIOs urged to probe insurtech start-ups

  25-10-2016 09:15
  
  Insurance chief information officers struggle to progress with digital strategies
  
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• Gable not declared in default

  25-10-2016 09:14
  
  FSCS is monitoring the situation
  
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• The gig economy needs cover as flexible as it is

  25-10-2016 08:00
  
  In the good old days, the point where work ended and leisure began was obvious. Home and office were clearly defined spaces, and uniforms, working hours and management structures all helped to reinforce these boundaries. But those days have gone and in their place stands a more fluid working culture, where play can be work, home can be the office, and for many workers the boss is the man or woman in the mirror.
  
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• Spotlight on ADAS systems and insurer repairer networks

  25-10-2016 08:00
  
  The technology in your car is accelerating at an incredible pace. Can insurers stay in the fast lane and get the most out of the changes?
  
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• Spotlight on ADAS systems and implications for insurers

  25-10-2016 08:00
  
  With 40% of vehicles set to be fitted with ADAS systems by 2020, the maintenance and calibration of these systems is a cause for concern for insurers
  
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• ROE on homeowners insurance drops for first time since 2011

  25-10-2016 00:16
  While top line growth in US homeowners insurance continued last
  year, the prospective return on equity (ROE) for the business line
  dropped for the first time since 2011, according to Aon
  Benfield.
  Direct written premiums climbed to $89bn last year from $86bn in
  2014, and are on course to surpass $90bn for the first time this
  year.
  Meanwhile homeowners insurers secured an average rate increase
  of 2 percent during the 18 months to August 2016, with rates
  dropping only in...
  
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• Matthew claims rise to $549mn in Florida

  25-10-2016 00:16
  Hurricane Matthew-related claims climbed to $549mn in Florida,
  with most tied to residential property damage, official figures
  show.
  About a quarter of all the claims have been closed, but more
  than half of those resulted in no payment, according to data
  compiled through 21 October by the Florida Office of Insurance
  Regulation. The data show 10,859 claims paid and closed, while
  12,537 were closed without payment.
  The number of claims filed rose by about 21 percent to 91,212,
  including 3,833...
  
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• Everest Re 3Q profit surges as underwriting margins rebound

  25-10-2016 00:16
  Everest RE reported after-tax operating profit of $273.2
  million, or $6.53 per share for the quarter ended 30 September, up
  about 36 percent from the same period a year earlier as the insurer
  improved margins and increased revenue.The results far surpassed consensus views of $4.56 a share,
  according to Zacks Investment Research. Reuters placed the
  consensus view at $4.45 per share. The Bermuda-based insurer said
  net income more than tripled to $295.4mn, or $7.06 a share, from
  about $88.6mn...
  
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