Insurance news

• R&Q, Biba highlight flood cover pricing challenges

  21-03-2017 20:34
  Laura Board
  The executive overseeing a three-month-old UK flood insurance
  scheme for small and medium enterprises has described the
  challenges of providing low-cost cover for at-risk properties ahead
  of updating lawmakers on the programme.
  Speaking before briefing a parliamentary flood prevention group
  meeting this afternoon, Randall & Quilter's head of
  commercial risk services James Wheddon said early take-up of the
  scheme had been good since its launch in December. But he noted
  that as an
  
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• Navigators recruits new continental European head

  21-03-2017 20:34
  US specialty insurer Navigators has hired Guillaume Déal
  from Crédit Agricole as managing director for mainland Europe
  as part of a growth push on the continent, The
  Insurance Insider can reveal.
  Déal was chief underwriting officer at Caisse
  d'Assurances Mutuelles du Crédit Agricole (CAMCA) from
  November 2015 until his resignation earlier this year.
  Before joining CAMCA, Déal was vice president and European
  strategic alliances and alternative distribution manag
  
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• Bank of America adds Morgan Stanley banker Bischof

  21-03-2017 20:34
  Bank of America's investment banking arm has hired seasoned
  insurance dealmaker Eric Bischof from rival Morgan Stanley,
  according to an internal communique seen by The
  Insurance Insider.
  The banker, whose resume includes some of the sector's
  largest deals, will join Bank of America Merrill Lynch as co-head
  of its global financial institutions group.
  He will report to global head of investment banking Diego De
  Giorgi and work alongside fellow co-head Jim O'Neil to develop
  international strategy a
  
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• Former Gallagher employee jailed for fraud

  21-03-2017 18:47
  
  Former Gallagher employee jailed for fraud after crime was discovered as a result of the broker’s governance and control process
  
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• Ex-Gallagher employee jailed for five years for stealing £1.8m

  21-03-2017 17:55
  
  Indemnity Risk Solutions claims manager funded lavish lifestyle through fraud.
  
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• CFC Underwriting unveils new shareholder

  21-03-2017 17:37
  
  Private equity house backs CFC Underwriting
  
  Read more

• Zenk rate reduction muted as limit mushrooms again

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Japanese mutual insurer Zenkyoren will secure
  only a marginal improvement on terms for its 2017/18 cat placement,
  as the world's biggest buyer prioritised an increase in the
  limit it purchased to almost $14bn.
  Sources told this publication that risk-adjusted pricing on the
  cat excess-of-loss treaty, which renews on 1 April, is roughly flat
  to 2 percent lower year-on-year.
  The amount of open market limit purchased by Zenkyoren, assuming
  the layers are 100 percent placed, is set to rise from 1.365
  
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• Vitruvian buys into CFC at £230mn valuation

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Private equity house Vitruvian has acquired a stake of around 40
  percent in specialist managing general agent (MGA) CFC
  Underwriting, The Insurance Insider can
  reveal.
  Sources told this publication the deal values the business at
  £230mn ($284.8mn), which is equivalent to an astronomical
  multiple of just over 15x forward Ebitda, and almost 20x trailing
  Ebitda.
  This publication first revealed in December last year thatCFC had appointed Evercore to run a process which looked to
  change the equ
  
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• Transparency and cost of insurance must improve: Miller

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Insurers need to improve the transparency of their product and
  reduce costs if they are to compete with newcomers, Embroker CEO
  Matt Miller warned a gathering of industry leaders last week.
  The average cost ratios of carriers are excessive for what is
  effectively an intangible product, Miller said at The
  Insurance Insider's InsiderTech event in New York
  on 16 March.
  "Compared to other parts of the economy it is entirely out
  of whack and therefore fundamentally unsustainable," he
  said.
  &quot.
  
  Read more

• The Insider 50 recovers

  21-03-2017 15:49
  The Insurance Insider's main index
  of P&C (re)insurers - The Insider 50 - rose by 74 basis points
  last week to reach 1,052.2 points, recovering half of the ground
  lost the week before.
  This was mainly driven by good stock performance for the global
  reinsurer composite, which climbed by 1.2 percent to 1,035.3 index
  points.
  Hannover Re was among the best
  performers, as its share price increased by 2.5 percent on a weekly
  basis to EUR108.75, reversing the slight deterioration...
  
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• Sponsors secure cat bond discounts as spreads drop

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Insurance spreads on new cat bond deals this year have dropped
  by 12 percent on average during the marketing process, as
  insurance-linked securities (ILS) sponsors pressed hard to take
  advantage of a softening market.
  This figure, based on data collected by sister title
  Trading Risk, covers all new deals
  marketed in 2017, excluding XL Catlin's Galilei Re 2017-1
  transaction that was priced in late 2016.
  Including Galilei, the reductions in final
  premium compared to pricing targets was a more rest
  
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• Securis Lloyd's SPA to reach $130mn for 2017

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Securis has significantly expanded capacity for its Lloyd's
  partnership with Novae this year and expects to write $130mn of
  gross written premiums through its special purpose arrangement
  (SPA).
  Syndicate 6129 launched last year with plans to write $100mn of
  gross premium in 2016, of which Securis was due to retain $75mn
  with Novae taking 20 percent of the portfolio.
  This year, Securis will take about $90mn of the SPA's total
  portfolio.
  The SPA was formerly known as a special purpose...
  
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• Property D&F rates plateau at 1 April

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Property direct and facultative (D&F) rates appear to be
  bottoming out at the 1 April renewals, as carriers reach a point
  where they cannot afford to concede further reductions.
  Sources told The Insurance Insider
  that in the latest round of renewals pricing on loss-free accounts
  is coming in at flat or 5 percent down on the previous year.
  "It feels that the D&F market is saying, enough is
  enough," one London-based underwriting source said.
  "We're at a point where we...
  
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• Japanese rates show further softening at 1.4

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Rates on most Japanese property catastrophe excess-of-loss (XoL)
  treaties look set to slide by around 5 percent when they renew on 1
  April, as reinsurers continue to offer concessions to buyers to
  defend their renewal books.
  The Japanese renewals, always the focus at 1 April, have seen
  meaningful additional demand for XoL cover from cedants looking for
  extra protection and from those rebalancing their spend away from
  pro rata.
  Other themes to emerge from the renewal include an increased
  appetite
  
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• Insurers take Dutch courage from VVD victory

  21-03-2017 15:49
  The election victory last week of the Netherlands'
  centre-right VVD Party over the anti-EU Party for Freedom has
  removed a cloud of uncertainty over the country's future within
  the bloc.
  In doing so it may have swayed UK carriers that are considering
  the country as a location for an EU subsidiary after Brexit.
  Concerns about the rise of right-wing firebrand Geert
  Wilders' party had played a part in pushing the Netherlands
  into the shadow of tiny Benelux compatriot Luxembourg, which...
  
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• Insider View: 'Wheels' and the US casualty market

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Signs that hardening conditions in segments of the
  "wheels" market are spreading to the reinsurance sector
  might be seen as an early indicator of change in the broader US
  casualty treaty market.
  Margins are certainly squeezed across the board, and there was
  evidence at 1 January that casualty cedes had plateaued and were
  now under pressure in other segments of the marketplace.
  Meanwhile, there has also been some evidence of increased
  reinsurance demand from carriers with deteriorating portfolios
  
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• Insider View: Demotech downgrade threat

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Florida's smaller homeowners' carriers have averted the
  immediate threat to their critical A-range ratings.
  But there could well be a sense of déjà vu in the
  not-too-distant future if the Florida legislature fails to address
  the growing assignment of benefits (AOB) crisis in the state.
  Demotech has said as much, warning that it is likely carriers
  will again face the prospect of downgrades in the absence of a
  "meaningful improvement" in the situation.
  And there is not a groundswell
  
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• Insider View: An InsurTech meeting of minds

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Much of the talk around InsurTech seems to fall into two distinct
  categories.
  The first is excitement over the potential for new technologies
  to bring genuine change to the industry.
  The second is fear over what these changes mean for incumbent
  companies, and whether they will be able to keep pace with the
  developments or fall victim to new competition.
  But regardless of the category the conversation falls into,
  people have a fierce hunger to understand what is going on,...
  
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• Home and work tech gap will help innovation: Notaras

  21-03-2017 15:49
  XL Innovate partner Martha Notaras has said that the dissonance
  between tech experiences "at home" and during the workday
  within the industry will help to boost innovation in (re)insurance.
  Speaking at The Insurance
  Insider's inaugural InsiderTech event in New York
  last week (16 March), Notaras said this experience, combined with
  evolving employee demographics, would ease current disparities.
  "When we are consumers, we are on Amazon - it suggests
  other things we can buy; Spotify suggests other t
  
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• Heritage seeks M&A outside Florida

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Heritage Insurance Holdings has expressed a strong appetite for
  further M&A but indicated that smaller Floridian carriers,
  widely identified as ripe for consolidation, will not be on its hit
  list.
  The insurer raised $73mn in net proceeds in a private placement
  late last year that it said would be used for M&A and strategic
  investments.
  And the company announced last week (15 March) that it had filed
  an amended shelf registration that will allow it to issue common or
  preferred...
  
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• Florida downgrade threat remains on AOB concerns

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Demotech's reprieve of the thinly capitalised Florida
  homeowners' sector may only be temporary, as the rating agency
  warned that without "meaningful improvement" in the
  assignment of benefits (AOB) situation, carriers in the state will
  likely face future downgrades.
  There was nevertheless relief for the state's smaller
  homeowners' insurers after Demotech confirmed last week (16
  March) it had downgraded just one company, with none of the 57
  entities it rates in the sector slipping below the cruci
  
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• Fewer Florida carriers to drop FHCF cover

  21-03-2017 15:49
  The number of Florida insurers looking to lower their use of
  reinsurance from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) has
  dropped notably in the run-up to this year's 1 June
  renewal.
  Only a few carriers have told the FHCF they want to lower their
  participation in the state-backed reinsurance scheme this year,
  sister publication Trading Risk reported
  last week (17 March). None of them are significantly large
  reinsurance buyers, according to the state agency's
  records.
  Old Dominion Insurance
  
  Read more

• EU data rules complicate Brexit planning

  21-03-2017 15:49
  The incoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) could
  have major implications for UK carriers planning to leave key
  functions in the country post-Brexit.
  From May 2018 the directive will restrict the transfer of
  personal data outside the EU. That will affect US technology
  giants, but also carriers with support functions beyond the
  soon-to-be 27 nation bloc.
  Outsourcing has become a regulatory hot potato, with insurance
  supervisors worldwide eying it closely.
  But at the same time, diffe
  
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• Distribution costs key to first wave of InsurTech

  21-03-2017 15:49
  InsurTech firms are targeting distribution in their first wave of
  disruption, and the polite, gentlemanly nature of their entry into
  insurance is unlikely to last long, speakers warned at
  The Insurance Insider's inaugural
  InsiderTech event.
  The event, held in New York last week (16 March), brought
  together representatives from (re)insurers, start-ups and venture
  funds to debate the role of established industry players in
  spurring innovation, as well as where InsurTech is headed and how
  carriers
  
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• AI and machine learning no replacement for people

  21-03-2017 15:49
  Underwriting will not become redundant as a result of artificial
  intelligence (AI), but technology will change the nature of
  underwriting, according to TigerRisk's global head of analytics
  and technology Jayant Khadilkar.
  Speaking at The Insurance
  Insider's InsiderTech event in New York on 16
  March, Khadilkar said computational developments were a tool to
  help people make better decisions, rather than a replacement for
  underwriters altogether.
  "The mix of underwriters will change - the old-fashi
  
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• Prospero starts trading in Edinburgh

  21-03-2017 14:37
  
  The HNW specialist is an AR of Momentum and aims to employ school leavers and act as an alternative to university.
  
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• Coversure opens in Bingley

  21-03-2017 12:59
  
  New location takes the franchise’s network to 94 offices.
  
  Read more

• Meet the techies: Callum Rimmer

  21-03-2017 12:53 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  Just Miles chief technology officer Callum Rimmer tells us about the opportunities InsurTech can create for brokers.
  
  Read more

• Malta will be biggest beneficiary of Brexit, says MPG

  21-03-2017 12:13
  
  Malta will benefit more than any other financial centre in Europe from Brexit, according Managing Partners Group.
  
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• Neon launches marine and offshore construction consortium

  21-03-2017 11:55
  
  Neon has launched a marine and offshore construction consortium, underwritten by Mireille Dolonen.
  
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• NFU Mutual sees underwriting profit drop 46% in 2016

  21-03-2017 11:31
  
  NFU Mutual saw underwriting profit drop by 46% last year, to £151m from £281m in 2015.
  
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• Insurance staff share £35.6m windfall as Hannover Re buys firm

  21-03-2017 11:24
  
  Premium Content: Employee trust reaps rewards of £142.5m sale of Lloyd’s-based business 
  
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• Insurance staff share £35.6m Argenta windfall as Hannover Re buys firm

  21-03-2017 11:24
  
  Premium Content: Employee trust reaps Argenta windfall of 142.5m
  
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• Profits treble at NFU Mutual in 2016

  21-03-2017 11:19 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  Insurer’s COR slips to 88.3%.
  
  Read more

• US flood mapping cuts could lead to premium hike

  21-03-2017 11:06
  Insurance premiums could rise if the Trump administration cuts back
  the National Flood Insurance Program's Flood Hazard Mapping
  Program, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) has said.
  The organisation warned consumers that the cost of flood
  insurance would rise to pay for mapping after the Trump
  administration proposed to make $190mn in savings by cutting the
  discretionary aspect of the mapping program.
  If flood mapping is not updated, it could also lead to
  construction on unsuitable areas,
  
  Read more

• Opinion: Japanese renewals

  21-03-2017 11:06
  This lunchtime we will publish our early take on the 1.4 renewals
  in Japan. Cat pricing is down 5 percent give or take. Ceding
  commissions in the round are up about a point on the quake quota
  shares.
  The rudiments of the renewal are not in doubt. The picture at
  the micro level is fairly clear. Take a random sample of
  underwriters and brokers to lunch and you will come away with the
  same headline points.
  But it is when...
  
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• Neon launches marine and construction consortium

  21-03-2017 11:06
  Neon has continued to build its marine offer with the launch of a
  new marine and offshore construction consortium.
  The new consortium offers $70mn capacity for shipyard
  construction and $55mn for rig construction. It will also hold an
  annual broker marine and offshore construction conference and a
  marine and offshore construction course for young Lloyd's
  market participants.
  The consortium, which began operations in February, is
  underwritten byMireille Dolonen, who joined Neon as marine and offs
  
  Read more

• Randall & Quilter acquires Bermudian captive Linco

  21-03-2017 09:32
  
  Randall & Quilter has signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire captive insurer Linco from Ameripride Services and Alsco.
  
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• Asia Insurance to benefit as Hong Kong Life agrees sale

  21-03-2017 08:49
  
  Hong Kong Life insurance, 16.6% owned by Hong Kong general insurer Asia Insurance, has agreed to sell to Hong Kong-based investment firm First Origin International for HK$7.1bn (£740m).
  
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• Legal Update: Driverless car policies don't preclude product liability

  21-03-2017 08:00
  
  As automated vehicles take to the roads, the government is likely to focus on one motor insurer as the first port of call for any third-party claim to simplify the claims process. However, that will not preclude other proceedings based on product liability.
  
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• Blog: Mishcon ruling won't set solicitors' PI premiums rising

  21-03-2017 08:00
  
  In the often challenging world of solicitors' professional indemnity insurance, the conveyancing field has long held a high-risk reputation due to its propensity for claims generation. Now a new lawsuit has hit the headlines, with the controversial outcome prompting widespread predictions of a dramatic rise in PI premiums. But are these forecasts of dramatic fallout accurate or overblown?
  
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