Insurance news

• Pool Re raises retro cover to £2bn

  01-03-2017 19:59
  Pool Re has ratcheted up its retro limit at renewal to
  £2.0bn ($2.5bn) and is close to offering cover for cyber
  terrorism.
  CEO Julian Enoizi told The Insurance
  Insider the UK state terrorism reinsurance scheme
  bought the additional protection in excess of a £500mn
  retention, as featured on last year's programme. The new cover
  incepts at 1 March.
  Pool Rebought £1.95bn last year and about £1.80bn in 2015,
  when it purchased reinsurance
  on the commercial market for the first.
  
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• Ogden rate calculation review due before Easter

  01-03-2017 19:59
  A debate held by UK peers in the House of Lords this afternoon
  revealed that a consultation into calculating the Ogden rate will
  commence no later than Easter.
  Lord Keen of Elie, a Conservative peer and spokesman for the
  Ministry of Justice, acknowledged that the method used to calculate
  the discount rate for bodily injury lump-sum awards reflected a
  very conservative assumption of how someone would invest the money,
  and called the current rate-setting method "clearly
  outdated".
  Labour's Lord Be
  
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• XL to book $75mn impact from Ogden rate cut

  01-03-2017 16:52
  XL expects changes in the UK discount rate for bodily injury
  compensation to result in a negative pre-tax impact of $75mn.
  Earlier this week, the UK government cut the so-called Ogden
  rate to minus 0.75 percent from 2.50 percent, effective from 30
  March.
  The $75mn impact relates primarily to XL's UK motor business
  in the reinsurance segment, although UK motor bodily injury, UK
  employers' liability and UK public liability were also affected
  by the change.
  The impact of the rate...
  
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• Slice Labs moves into five more states

  01-03-2017 16:52
  Munich Re-backed on-demand InsurTech start-up Slice Labs has
  expanded the preview release of its homeowners' offering to a
  further five US states.
  The company will launch the preview of the platform in
  Massachusetts, Texas and Washington, after expanding into Colorado
  and Maryland late last year.
  Slice Labs initially rolled out the preview offering in Iowa in
  2016.
  The New York-headquartered start-up has received financial
  backing from XL Innovate, Munich Re and several venture capital
  firms.
  La
  
  Read more

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• RKH Specialty broker fabricated terror covers

  01-03-2017 16:52
  RKH Specialty has dismissed a broker after internal checks
  flagged that he had faked cover on a number of terrorism accounts,
  The Insurance Insider can reveal.
  Tom Jeffs, formerly an assistant director at RKH, had his
  employment terminated in late December for gross misconduct after
  falsifying documents.
  It is understood that Jeffs falsified slips, or partially
  falsified slips, on four separate London market accounts, with
  cover confirmed to clients that was not in fact in place.
  Neither Jeffs n
  
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• Insurers call on Chancellor to set new discount rate within a year

  01-03-2017 16:44
  
  Industry leaders urged the Chancellor yesterday to set a new discount rate within the year, director general of the Association off British Insurers Huw Evans said.
  
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• News analysis: Private equity still making waves in market

  01-03-2017 14:19
  
  Will PE investment lead to more smaller regional brokers being snapped up?
  
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• Opinion: Mark Bower-Dyke on broking's digital future

  01-03-2017 14:17
  
  The end of motor broking as we know it?: Mark Bower-Dyke poses the question of whether brokers will survive in an increasingly digital world
  
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• Willis Towers Watson completes broker acquisition

  01-03-2017 14:02
  Willis Towers Watson has completed its acquisition of the French
  aviation insurance broker Office d'Assurances Aériennes G
  de Cugnac (OAAGC).
  The broking giant first revealed it was in talks to buy the
  Paris-based intermediary on 20 February. OAAGC's team of 16
  will join Willis Towers Watson's global aerospace team,
  according to a statement today.
  The deal brings OAAGC's client book into Willis Towers
  Watson's French operation.
  In France Willis Towers Watson uses the Gras Savoye brand - a
  
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• Tawuniya changes CEO

  01-03-2017 14:02
  Saudi Arabian composite insurer Tawuniya has selected Abdul Aziz
  Bin Hasan Al-Bouq as its CEO to replace Raed Bin Abdullah
  Al-Tamimi, who has resigned for personal reasons.
  In a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange on 26 February,
  Tawuniya said that Al-Bouq, currently the company's vice
  president for sales and marketing, will start as CEO on 21
  April.
  Tawuniya, previously known as the National Company for
  Cooperative Insurance, was one of Saudi Arabia's first local
  insurance companies when it w
  
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• State support needed for uninsurable cyber risks: Swiss Re

  01-03-2017 14:02
  Government back-stop financing may ultimately be necessary to cover
  losses from "uninsurable" extreme catastrophic cyber loss
  events, Swiss Re has claimed.
  In a Sigma study on cyber risk published today, Swiss Re said
  the systemic nature of such risks and the potential scale of losses
  from an attack, such as a disruption to critical infrastructure or
  networks, could be too big for the private (re)insurance sector to
  absorb.
  "In such circumstances there may be an important role for
  governments to
  
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• Madison Dearborn completes £40mn Towergate equity buy

  01-03-2017 14:02
  Towergate's largest shareholder, private equity firm Madison
  Dearborn Partners, has injected another £40mn ($50mn) of
  equity into the carrier as part of a share issuance.
  In a stock exchange filing Towergate announced a pre-emptive
  offer of 40 million shares priced at £1.00 per share, of which
  38.2 million were issued to Madison Dearborn-controlled entity
  Tango Investments LLC.
  The remainder of the offer was issued to a minority shareholder.
  The purchase takes Madison Dearborn's stak
  
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• Florida waits for Demotech action after deadline passes

  01-03-2017 14:02
  The Florida homeowners' insurance market is waiting on Demotech
  after the deadline for capital-depleted carriers to replenish their
  surplus passed yesterday.
  While only a handful of companies will be waiting nervously to
  find out if they are on the ratings agency's downgrade list,
  the rest of the market will also be keenly anticipating updated
  guidance from Demotech about changing reinsurance requirements.
  As reported yesterday, a number of the Florida insurers
  considered vulnerable to the downg
  
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• CII unites with peers to form Chartered Body Alliance

  01-03-2017 14:02
  The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has forged an alliance
  with peers in the banking and securities and investment industries
  to raise awareness of the organisations' work and promote the
  use of chartered professionals.
  The CII has joined with the Chartered Institute for Securities
  & Investment and the Chartered Banker Institute to create the
  Chartered Body Alliance, which has a joint membership of almost
  200,000.
  The initiative isn't a merger, and the three member bodies
  will continue t
  
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• Pukka targets £500m GWP

  01-03-2017 13:33
  
  The MGA is set to move into the Australian market and is seeking further growth in courier.
  
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• Open GI offers fraud check for brokers

  01-03-2017 13:00
  
  The software house has teamed up with Verisk Insurance Solutions on a vehicle fraud check system.
  
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• Clear Insurance Management acquires MPW Insurance Brokers

  01-03-2017 12:59
  
  Clear Insurance Management has acquired Kent-based MPW Insurance Brokers, its largest acquisition to date.
  
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• CII joins professional bodies to form Chartered Body Alliance

  01-03-2017 12:45
  
  The Chartered Insurance Institute has formed an alliance with two other chartered bodies in financial services.
  
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• One in four insurers failing mobile users

  01-03-2017 12:26
  
  A quarter of insurers in the UK are failing to meet customers demand for a mobile and tablet optimised online experience.
  
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• The Chartered Body Alliance launches

  01-03-2017 11:48 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  The CII teams up with other professional bodies to promote professionalism in financial services.
  
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• Video: Succession planning (3) – criteria for success

  01-03-2017 11:45 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  Aviva’s Phil Bayles on being about clear about the goals when undertaking succession planning.
  
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• Opinion: Hancock's final stand?

  01-03-2017 11:28
  The news earlier this week that AIG's directors are discussingwhether to punish or oust CEO Peter Hancockafter a dreadful
  set of fourth quarter results has heaped renewed pressure on the
  executive.
  Whether the company's board responds with something akin to
  the dreaded "vote of confidence" that is so often
  followed by the sacking of a football manager on a run of bad
  results remains to be seen.
  But recent history shows that this is not the first time...
  
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• Hammond, ABI agree on Ogden review goals

  01-03-2017 11:28
  UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond on Tuesday met
  insurance CEOs and the head of the Association of British Insurers
  (ABI) in the first step of a consultation about how the personal
  injury discount rate should be set.
  In a joint statement issued after the meeting, Hammond and ABI
  director general Huw Evans said the government will "progress
  urgently" with the consultation and "bring forward any
  necessary legislation at an early stage".
  The statement added: "It is important that...
  
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• Brit launches US cyber team

  01-03-2017 11:28
  London market carrier Brit has hired Michael Carr as the head of
  its new US cyber and technology team.
  Carr will be based in Chicago and will begin writing business
  through the Brit Global Specialty USA programme from April.
  Brit said the launch of a US-based cyber team would help meeting
  the growing demand for cyber and technology products in the US
  small and medium-sized enterprise sector.
  Carr joins the company from Argo Global, where he served as
  technology practice...
  
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• Clear buys MPW Insurance Brokers

  01-03-2017 11:06
  
  Biggest ever deal for Clear will see MPW’s staff and management stay with the firm.
  
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• Markel extends charity and community group cover

  01-03-2017 11:05
  
  The product now includes organisations with incomes of up to £1m.
  
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• Video: A broking minute with Ashley Peters

  01-03-2017 11:00
  
  The managing director of Staveley Head takes on our broking minute challenge.
  
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• Autonet expands into Manchester with new office

  01-03-2017 10:41
  
  Broker recruits 80 people from Towergate’s former SBU unit.
  
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• Towergate SBU staff find new home with Autonet

  01-03-2017 10:28
  
   Van broker Autonet has hired a large number of Towergate SBU staff
  
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• Chancellor pledges ‘urgent’ review of discount rate method

  01-03-2017 10:26
  
  Industry to ‘contribute fully’ to review of discount rate method
  
  Read more

• Principal buys motorcycle book from Rampdale

  01-03-2017 10:10
  
  Deal adds nearly 7,000 bikes to Principal’s portfolio.
  
  Read more

• Chancellor and ABI chief issue joint statement on discount rate

  01-03-2017 10:00 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  ABI and fifteen insurance bosses involved in discussions in Downing Street.
  
  Read more

• Interview: Sian Fisher, Chartered Insurance Institute

  01-03-2017 08:00
  
  A year into her role as CII CEO, Sian Fisher speaks to Martin Croucher about tackling discrimination and her plans for the body
  
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• Career file: Jim Bichard

  01-03-2017 05:30
  
  Bichard has been appointed head of PWC’s UK insurance practice
  
  Read more

• Ogden rate change unlikely to affect ratings: AM Best

  01-03-2017 02:50
  AM Best has comforted insurers after what it called a
  "drastic" shift in the way personal injury claims are
  calculated by saying it does not expect to see any rating
  downgrades on the back of the changes.
  The ratings agency said insurers and reinsurers with significant
  motor books would bear the brunt of the impact from the changes,
  however it warned that other liability lines would also be
  affected.
  In a shock announcement yesterday, the UK government reduced the
  discount...
  
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• Maiden drops on concern annual report may be delayed

  01-03-2017 02:50
  Investors shied away from Maiden Holdings after company
  executives warned that they may miss a filing deadline tomorrow to
  produce audited financial statements, citing a $120.4mn reserve
  charge disclosed two weeks ago.
  Maiden shares slumped almost 6.4 percent to close at $15.45 in
  New York trading.
  "Today's market sell off is badly overdone," said
  Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Meyer Shields in a note to
  investors. But he also reduced his earnings estimates and share
  price target, citing low
  
  Read more

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