Insurance news

• Willis Towers Watson appoints Benelux head

  15-03-2017 21:23
  Willis Towers Watson has appointed former Dutch politician Bibi de
  Vries as its new head of Benelux.
  De Vries joined the company only last year as a senior
  consultant working in business development. Between 1994 and 2006
  she was a member of the Dutch parliament, representing the
  centre-right VVD, the Netherlands' largest political party. She
  later joined financial services company Achmea.
  She replaces Bart den Hartog, who is joining Zurich-based life
  insurer elipsLife after being appointed to t
  
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• Tower asks Suncorp to clarify bid after stake-building

  15-03-2017 21:23
  Tower Limited has asked Suncorp to show its hand after the
  Australian insurer took its stake in the company up to 19.99
  percent through the acquisition of stock at a per-share price
  higher than its offer to buy the New Zealand carrier outright.
  Through its own New Zealand operation Vero, Suncorp paid $1.40 a
  share to purchase 11.3 million shares in Tower from Perpetual.
  The price was higher than its 22 February $1.30 a share
  indicative offer for Tower aimed...
  
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• Oregon lawmakers eye quake insurance needs

  15-03-2017 21:23
  Whether to form an earthquake insurance provider modelled on
  California's publicly managed, privately funded carrier would
  be the focus of a state task force under consideration in the
  Oregon Senate.
  But the proposed task force would not be asked to consider
  whether to set up a state-run insurer under an amendment to the
  measure, known as Senate Bill 109, that is expected to be made by
  the committee working on the proposal when it meets later
  today.
  Any move to...
  
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• The Hartford nears decision on Talcott sale

  15-03-2017 17:25
  The Hartford is preparing to take a decision on whether to dispose
  of its $4.4bn variable annuity business Talcott Resolution and
  reposition itself as a non-life insurer, after final bids for the
  unit were submitted late last month, The Insurance
  Insider understands.
  Sources told this publication that final-round bidders for the
  variable annuity run-off book included Resolution, which has
  backing from private equity titan Blackstone; Bob Diamond's
  Atlas Merchant Capital; and Wilton Re, which is
  
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• Tesla eyes insurance market entry

  15-03-2017 17:25
  Tesla executives are convinced the company's
  autopilot-equipped cars are safer than most other vehicles on the
  road and have called on insurers to write cover that reflects
  that.
  If the discounts offered to drivers of the electric cars
  don't meet expectations, founder and CEO Elon Musk has said the
  company will be ready to roll out its own insurance product for its
  customers.
  "If we find that insurance providers are not matching the
  insurance proportionate to the rest of the...
  
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• Tesla could enter insurance market with in-house policies

  15-03-2017 17:11
  
  Tesla is planning to enter the insurance market with its own policies if industry products don’t reflect the needs of drivers.
  
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• What SME brokers can learn from InsurTech start-ups

  15-03-2017 16:06
  
  Jonathan Swift explains that brokers have a lot to learn from firms like Bunker, Cover Wallet, Embroker, and Next Insurance.
  
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• Insurers ‘missed chance’ to influence insurance rules over drones

  15-03-2017 14:24
  
  Insurers are sleepwalking into consenting to legislation over drones that they have had no role in shaping, it has been warned.
  
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• Zurich joins Startupbootcamp programme

  15-03-2017 13:40
  Zurich has joined start-up accelerator programme
  Startupbootcamp's InsurTech initiative.
  It is the latest addition to a cohort that already includes
  Allianz, Ergo, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Talanx among others, and
  will now have access to the accelerator's group of InsurTech
  start-ups.
  Startupbootcamp offers three-month mentoring programmes for
  InsurTech start-ups that offer advice and collaboration with
  insurers, angel investors, venture capitalists and others.
  Antony Elliott, Zurich group head o
  
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• Patriot National shares tumble as Q4 loss swells

  15-03-2017 13:40
  Outsourced insurance services provider Patriot National tumbled
  deeper into the red in the fourth quarter of 2016 as fee income
  declined.
  The company said it made a Gaap net loss of $20.3mn compared
  with a loss of $5.4mn in the same period of 2015, with revenue down
  15.3 percent at $51.5mn.
  Patriot National's shares fell more than 17 percent to $2.83
  by yesterday's close in New York.
  The Q4 basic loss per share was $0.11, compared with earnings
  per share...
  
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• Helios books £5.5mn profit for 2014 YoA

  15-03-2017 13:40
  Aim-listed Lloyd's carrier Helios Underwriting has posted a
  final return on capacity of 15.5 percent for the 2014 year of
  account (YoA).
  The result was 2.72 percentage points better than the firm's
  most recent midpoint forecast, and translates to a profit of
  approximately £5.5mn ($6.7mn) on total capacity of
  £35.5mn.
  Helios said the overall improvement on the result would be
  received in cash when profits are distributed after the close of
  the 2014 YoA.
  For the 2015 YoA the firm...
  
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• Glaser sells $51mn of MMC shares

  15-03-2017 13:40
  Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) president and CEO Daniel
  Glaser has divested shares in the company worth approximately
  $51.1mn.
  According to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange
  Commission, Glaser was granted stock in the company that was then
  immediately sold.
  The executive's stake after the transactions remained stable
  at 279,612 shares, which are worth around $20.8mn at the current
  share price of $74.25.
  He sold the $51mn of shares over five transactions last week,
  just ov
  
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• Invicta buys GI portfolio from Priory

  15-03-2017 13:12
  
  Broker states the deal is first in a series it has planned for 2017.
  
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• CII hires former Zurich policy chief

  15-03-2017 12:58
  
  Matthew Connell has been appointed as director of policy and engagement at the Chartered Insurance Institute.
  
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• LV= has discussed merger and GI unit sale

  15-03-2017 12:42
  
  LV= has discussed merger amid tough trading conditions, report said
  
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• Startup Bootcamp Insurtech partners with Zurich

  15-03-2017 11:51
  
  Zurich has entered into a partnership with Startup Bootcamp and will be engaging with its portfolio of start-ups.
  
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• Start-up Bootcamp partners with Zurich

  15-03-2017 11:51
  
  Zurich has entered into a partnership with Start-up Bootcamp and will be engaging with its portfolio of start-ups.
  
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• InsurTech Futures: InMyBag uses tech to fight fraud

  15-03-2017 11:42
  
  The appointed representative, which offers cover for mobile devices, is to partner with machine learning firm Featurespace to prevent fraud.
  
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• Top 5: Cracking cyber crime

  15-03-2017 11:13
  
  Hiscox’s Stephen Ridley outlines what brokers can do to improve cyber security for themselves and their clients.
  
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• 'White Van Man' hit with 14% van insurance hike

  15-03-2017 10:34
  
  The rising cost of van insurance is adding to the financial pressure on the "White Van Man", according to Consumer Intelligence.
  
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• Cheltenham charity bets 2017: Day 2

  15-03-2017 10:30
  
  Which horses have our brokers and insurers tipped to win on the second day of the Festival?
  
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• CII appoints Matthew Connell as director of policy and engagement

  15-03-2017 10:20
  
  Connell previously worked at Zurich.
  
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• Opinion: Casualty modelling milestone

  15-03-2017 10:18
  You have to applaud thelaunch of the Lloyd's probabilistic liability model, which
  it has developed in conjunction with Arium.
  The model breaks liability risk modelling down into blocks,
  making the modelling of casualty exposures more akin to that of
  property catastrophe risk.
  Lloyd's and Arium claim the new approach borders on
  predictive modelling, and could even identify hidden risks that
  have not yet materialised.
  The launch represents yet another milestone in the development
  of casualty model
  
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• Munich Re sees lower 2017 profit

  15-03-2017 10:18
  Munich Re expects 2017 profit to fall to between EUR2.0bn to
  EUR2.4bn ($2.1bn to $2.6bn) from EUR2.6bn in 2016.
  The carrier issued the outlook on publishing its full 2016
  results, as it promised a further EUR1bn of share buybacks by the
  25 April 2018 annual general meeting (AGM)
  Outgoing CEO Nikolaus von Bomhard warned the coming financial
  year was set to be a "challenging environment".
  Munich Re's core reinsurance operation reported a 54.5
  percent drop in operating profits last year...
  
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• Pool Re: The changing face of terrorism

  15-03-2017 08:05
  The number of terrorist incidents on UK soil has dropped since Pool Re was set up, with Irish republican paramilitary attacks giving way to less frequent strikes by radical Islamic terrorists, however, the threat to the country remains as severe
  
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• Blog: Ogden predicted a nasty surprise way back in 1984

  15-03-2017 08:00
  
  The late Sir Michael Ogden might be chuckling somewhere at the recent discount rate events.
  
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• Youi's growth stalls in first half

  15-03-2017 05:01
  
  Australian challenger insurer Youi saw a 30% rise in profits but premium growth stalled in the first half of the year.
  
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• Crop insurer returns drop under USDA programme

  15-03-2017 02:10
  Falling returns for private carriers writing government-backed
  multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI) in the US could lead to exits
  from the market, according to a new report.
  Net returns on retained premiums plunged to just 1.5 percent on
  average in the period from 2011 to 2015, compared with 14.1 percent
  from 1998 to 2010, a study released by the National Corn Growers
  Association shows.The average return was expected to be 5 percent
  for the most-recent period.
  The report pointed to...
  
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