Insurance news

• WTW makes moves at top of CRB North America ranks

  11-07-2017 21:11
  Willis Towers Watson has made several moves in the senior
  leadership of its corporate risk and broking (CRB) unit in North
  America.
  The broker named Mark Rusas as head of CRB's northeast
  region to help drive growth in New England, metro New York and
  Buffalo. He continues to lead the company's mergers and
  acquisitions practice, which he has headed since 2003.
  Rusas now reports to Mike Liss, head of CRB for North America,
  and is based in New York.
  Willis...
  
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• Greenlight strikes $1.1bn Windhaven quota share deal

  11-07-2017 21:11
  Hedge fund-backed reinsurer Greenlight Re has agreed to provide
  $1.1bn in multi-year quota share cover for Florida and Texas
  personal lines carrier Windhaven Insurance.
  The renewed policy will assume a "substantial portion"
  of its increased premiums capacity of $1bn over a two year term,
  Miami-based Windhaven said today.
  The total return reinsurer affiliated with David Einhorn's
  New York-based Greenlight Capital hedge fund has provided
  reinsurance cover for the Miami-based carrier since 2011.
  Wi
  
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• Rural Insurance MD Ian Barclay resigns

  11-07-2017 21:04
  
  Boss had been with the Primary-owned firm since 2014.
  
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• Broker calls for uptake in farmer cyber insurance as hacks surge

  11-07-2017 18:15
  
  Farmer cyber insurance is a big protection boost as agriculture firms are vulnerable, says broking expert
  
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• In-depth - diversity: Diversity, opportunity and the future

  11-07-2017 18:13
  
  Beyond the moral argument for greater diversity in the workplace, there is a sound business case for increasing inclusivity that brokers could benefit from
  
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• USI Kibble & Prentice names commercial P&C head

  11-07-2017 18:03
  USI Kibble & Prentice has promoted Gary Patterson to the role
  of executive vice president and leader of its commercial P&C
  business.
  In his new role, Patterson will "hold ultimate
  responsibility for delivery of customised client-centric solutions
  with economic impact", said parent USI.
  Patterson has worked in USI Kibble & Prentice's P&C
  division for more than seven years, before which he was national
  sales manager for footwear company Deckers Outdoor.
  The Pacific Northwest-focuse
  
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• Hub acquires Long Island broker Unilite

  11-07-2017 18:03
  Acquisitive broker Hub International has acquired commercial
  lines intermediary Unilite Insurance Agency from co-owners Robert
  Eisman and Eli Blisko.
  New York-based Unlilite was founded in 1991 and focuses on
  providing commercial real estate, construction and manufacturing
  insurance. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
  Eisman and Blisko will join Hub's Northeast region,
  reporting to Doug Schenendorf, president of the company's Long
  Island operations.
  Hub has displayed a relentless appetite for
  
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• Diversity festival Dive In 2017 opens for registration

  11-07-2017 17:41
  
  Delegates can now get tickets for the third Dive In festival for diversity and inclusion.
  
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• Digital payment company to speed up claims payment

  11-07-2017 16:50
  
  Digital claims payment company Optal is in talks with major UK insurers.
  
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• InsurTech Futures: By Miles authorised by the FCA

  11-07-2017 16:26
  
  The pay-per-mile motor start-up recently received a £350,000 investment ahead of its UK launch.
  
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• EU regulator rules out brass plate passporting

  11-07-2017 15:39
  
  EU regulator warns against brass plate passporting, saying UK insurers will need to relocate substantial operations to get regulatory clearance in the EU
  
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• Insurer optimism remains flat despite increased hiring and investment

  11-07-2017 14:59
  
  Business volumes, profits and hiring in the general insurance sector remained strong in Q2 2017 despite optimism remaining flat, a survey has revealed.
  
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• Zhong An IPO reveals premium growth and margin challenges

  11-07-2017 14:57
  Alibaba-backed Chinese InsurTech start-up Zhong An has struggled
  to maintain its profit margin despite substantial and sustained top
  line growth since 2014, according to IPO documents.
  The filings for theforthcoming IPO offer a more rounded view of the
  company's fortunes since it launched in 2013 and secured a
  license from the Chinese authorities to sell insurance online.
  Thomson Reuters' International Financing Review
  previously said the IPO could be worth up to $1.5bn, although it
  remains uncl
  
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• Zaffino: A hard-nosed executive to get the job done

  11-07-2017 14:57
  When Peter Zaffino joins AIG as chief operating officer next
  month, the carrier will gain a tough but ruthlessly efficient
  business leader, sources have said.
  This publication revealed last week that the Marsh CEO was
  stepping
  down after more than 15 years at Marsh and McLennan Companies
  (MMC) to be reunited with former colleague Brian Duperreault at
  AIG.
  Market sources described the son of former Guy Carpenter
  chairman Sal Zaffino as an exceptionally driven and entrepreneurial
  man, who ran a...
  
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• Opinion: AmTrust comes out fighting

  11-07-2017 14:57
  No one could accuse AmTrust CEO Barry Zyskind and his team of
  shying away from a challenge.
  Instead of keeping its head below the parapet and hoping for
  everything to blow over, AmTrust has faced its demons - most
  recently the looming uncertainty over its reserving position, which
  started to rear its head in Q4 in the form of a hefty reserve
  charge.
  We are yet to determine whether the carrier has perhaps paid too
  much to slay this particular...
  
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• Market looks for Novae counterbid

  11-07-2017 14:57
  Novae finally looks set to exit the public markets after years of
  speculation, but questions remain over whether the
  700-pence-per-share recommended bid from Axis could encourage other
  would-be acquirers to lodge a counter offer.
  The 1.5x multiple that Axis CEO Albert Benchimol has agreed to
  pay looks compelling and the prospect of spending more will at
  least give any interested parties pause for thought.
  Making profits from Lloyd's businesses is tough at the
  moment, with acquisition costs eye-w
  
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• Listed Lloyd's sector shrinks to three

  11-07-2017 14:57
  Novae's exit from the public markets will leave Beazley,
  Lancashire and Hiscox as the only London-listed insurers at
  Lloyd's, well short of the sector's heyday when a basket of
  Lloyd's stocks would have included more than 10 firms.
  The trio were responsible for 11.0 percent of total gross
  written premiums at Lloyd's in 2016. Novae wrote 2.3 percent of
  the market's top line that year.
  By comparison, London-listed companies
  operating at Lloyd's in 2010 made up 35.3 percent of the...
  
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• ILS returns offer competitive diversification: Lane

  11-07-2017 14:57
  Insurance-linked securities (ILS) returns have outpaced yields
  from stocks and investment grade corporate bonds over the past 15
  years, according to analysis from Lane Financial.
  The firm said this showed ILS had achieved a "hands-down
  return victory" when compared with risk-adjusted returns from
  mainstream asset classes.
  Lane compared returns since 2002 for its
  ILS all-cat index against those from high-yield US corporate bonds,
  investment grade corporate bonds, the S&P 500 (assuming full
  re
  
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• FCA turns screw on investment intermediaries

  11-07-2017 14:57
  The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has listed a
  number of concerns about the investment consulting market, as the
  regulator intensifies its focus on intermediaries.
  In a wide-ranging report on the asset management community, the
  FCA said the issues included the potential for conflicts of
  interest and the dominant position of the three largest investment
  consultants, Marsh's Mercer, Willis Towers Watson and Aon
  Hewitt.
  The FCA has called upon the UK's Treasury to consider
  bringing investm
  
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• Ed looks to bear down on distribution costs

  11-07-2017 14:57
  Ed has launched a new placing exchange that it estimates will
  cut its own front-end costs per slip by more than 5 percent from as
  early as next year, with even larger savings likely once the broker
  integrates the system into its back-office functions.
  Head of global placement Jonathan Prinn also said the
  intermediary planned to cut the commissions it charges carriers as
  a result of its own savings.
  The wholesale broker's TradEd platform went live last month
  for certain...
  
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• Book review: Risk & Reward by Stephen Catlin

  11-07-2017 14:57
  When Stephen Catlin entered the insurance industry in 1973 after
  failing to make it to dental school, Lloyd's was rife with
  "cerebrally challenged" toffs and unscrupulous East End
  "barrow boys".
  Standards were sloppy, regulation was loose and green-suited
  claims brokers were considered the lowest of the low.
  In the four decades that followed the London market changed
  beyond recognition, with Catlin himself contributing to that
  transformation. In that time, he built his own underwriting
  business
  
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• Bernstein analysts warn on Swiss Re reserves

  11-07-2017 14:57
  Bernstein analysts have highlighted looming reserving issues in
  pockets of the European reinsurance sector, drawing attention to a
  "red flag" at Swiss Re.
  The analysis by Bernstein's Thomas Seidl took in Munich Re
  and Hannover Re, as well as Swiss Re.
  Seidl was particularly critical of the way Swiss Re has reserved
  its accident and health (A&H) exposure. The Bernstein analysis
  showed the Swiss reinsurance giant is the worst reserved of the
  cohort.
  The analysis did not account for retrocessio
  
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• Axis-Novae continues tide of consolidation

  11-07-2017 14:57
  Axis' proposed £468mn ($603mn) acquisition of Novae is
  just the latest example of the ineluctable drive towards
  consolidation in the sector, as the smaller publicly traded
  carriers are picked off by their larger rivals.
  After markets closed on 5 July, Bermudian (re)insurer Axis
  rushed out an announcement to tell investors that it had struck a
  deal to buy Novae in an all-cash transaction. The deal values the
  business at 1.5x fully diluted tangible book value per share and
  represents a...
  
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• AmTrust further clears the waters with ADC deal

  11-07-2017 14:57
  In inking a multi-hundred million dollar adverse development
  deal with Premia, AmTrust has sought to provide investors with
  further clarity over its financial position.
  The deal, which was announced after markets closed in New York
  on 6 July, provides about$400mn of coverage above AmTrust's $6.59bn of carried loss
  reserves as of 31 March.
  The deal became effective on 30 June and covers exposures
  through to 1 April 2017.
  AmTrust has become the latest of a number
  of US carriers...
  
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• AGCS names Smith as London engineering head

  11-07-2017 14:57
  Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) today named Paul
  Smith as its head of engineering for London, with immediate
  effect.
  Smith has been promoted from his role as a regional practice
  leader at AGCS for construction all-risks and inherent defects
  insurance.
  He replaces Tim Cook, who relocated from London to New York
  earlier this year to become AGCS's new head of engineering for
  North America.
  In this new role, Smith will be responsible for the engineering
  portfolio in the UK,...
  
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• EU regulators warn against sidestepping Brexit effect

  11-07-2017 14:42 via ft.com
  Insurance supervisor intensifies push against setting up shell companies on continent
  
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• Registration opens for Dive In 2017

  11-07-2017 13:44
  Registration opened today for Dive In, the festival for diversity and inclusion in insurance, which will take place in late September and focus on the ‘Diversity Dividend’.
  
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• Aviva launches health insurance to corporate clients

  11-07-2017 13:26
  
  Aviva has launched a low cost ‘Health Essentials’ insurance to its corporate clients which will enable employers to offer top-up cancer and physiotherapy cover to their employees.
  
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• Opinion: Insurance aid

  11-07-2017 12:18
  The UK government announced plans to spend £30mn ($39mn) on
  a London Centre for Global Disaster Protection over the weekend, in
  an initiative that will help developing countries to be better
  prepared to face natural disasters.
  This included £8mn allocated to a pilot scheme that would
  provide funding for countries to buy insurance cover against risks
  such as drought.
  You'd have thought this would be a feel-good announcement
  for the government at a testing time - helping poorer nations
  
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• Internal models will have to be reapproved post-Brexit: Eiopa

  11-07-2017 12:18
  The European insurance watchdog has warned that carriers'
  internal models for Solvency II will have to be reapproved by
  regulators in relevant European countries, following the UK's
  exit from the European Union (EU).
  In an opinion piece published earlier today, designed to foster
  convergence and consistency of authorisation processes across EU
  member states, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions
  Authority (Eiopa) said that post-Brexit, supervisors in European
  countries where UK firms
  
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• Higher risk US auto claims rise: AM Best

  11-07-2017 12:18
  US auto losses are mounting in the higher premium non-standard
  market amid escalating repair and medical costs, AM Best said in a
  report today.
  The ratings agency said that loss ratios in the class had
  deteriorated to the worst levels in a decade, with smaller regional
  and single state insurers suffering most.
  The loss-adjusted expense ratio for writers of US non-standard
  auto insurance was 78.4 percent in 2015 and 81.1 percent in 2016 -
  above the five and ten year...
  
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• Graft buster tipped to take over at CIRC: Reuters

  11-07-2017 12:18
  A Chinese official with a leading role in China's campaign
  against corruption is reportedly the front runner to head the
  country's insurance regulator.
  Yang Xiaochao, currently the secretary general of the
  China's anti-corruption body, the Central Commission for
  Discipline Inspection (CCDI), is tipped to take over at the China
  Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), Reuters reported.
  The Chinese government is looking for a replacement for former
  CIRC chairman Xiang Junbo, who has been accused of
  
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• Buffett gifts $3.2bn to charitable foundations

  11-07-2017 12:18
  Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett has donated shares in
  the company worth $3.17bn to five charitable foundations including
  the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
  Buffett converted 12,500 Class A shares into 18,750,000 Class B
  shares preparatory to gifting them, the company has said.
  The other foundations that benefited were the Susan Thompson
  Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett
  Foundation and NoVo Foundation.
  Buffett has now given more than 40 percent of
  
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• L&G to offer leak detector to home clients

  11-07-2017 12:09
  
  Legal & General has partnered with Home Serve to offer Leak Bot to its home insurance customers.
  
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• AGB Risk Control to tackle underinsurance with BI product

  11-07-2017 11:59
  
  The service assesses sums insured and indemnity period.
  
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• ABG Risk Control unveils BI product

  11-07-2017 11:59
  
  The service assesses sums insured and indemnity period.
  
  Read more

• ABG Risk Control to tackle underinsurance with BI product

  11-07-2017 11:59
  
  The service assesses sums insured and indemnity period.
  
  Read more

• Insurance Cares: No customer is invincible

  11-07-2017 11:48
  
  The CII’s Matt Connell argues that regulation isn’t the answer when it comes to treating vulnerable customers fairly.
  
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• Go Compare on track for 22% boost in half-year earnings

  11-07-2017 11:41
  
  Price comparison site Go Compare has said it's on track for a 22% leap in earnings for the six-month period ending 30 June 2017.
  
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• Editor's letter - July/August 2017

  11-07-2017 11:24
  
  Recurring theme: Underinsurance is a problem the industry has had to revisit time and again, so why hasn’t it been cracked yet?
  
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• XL Catlin names Ochsenkuehn head of global programs

  11-07-2017 11:17
  
  XL Catlin has appointed Sonja Ochsenkuehn as head of global programs.
  
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• Gocompare profits boost

  11-07-2017 11:07
  
  Gocompare profits boost in first half
  
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• Brokers increasingly upbeat, says CBI/PwC poll

  11-07-2017 11:00
  
  Business volumes increased but growth is expected to slow.
  
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• PwC survey: Insurers in spending spree despite uncertainty

  11-07-2017 09:35
  
  Pessimistic outlook fails to curb spending spree, PwC survey finds
  
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• Third major insurer signs up to offer HomeServe LeakBot

  11-07-2017 09:30
  
  Insurer joins Aviva and RSA in offering HomeServe LeakBot leak detector to customers
  
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• Legal Update: How the GDPR is going to change the lives of insurers

  11-07-2017 07:00
  
  Insurers will face stricter data rules but these may help them grow the cyber market, write Mark Estafanous and Kate Payne, solicitor and partner at Elborne Mitchell.
  
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• Blog: How to play the digital game

  11-07-2017 07:00
  
  Transforming an established business to exploit the new touchpoints made available by digital is no easy task but it's a necessity that the full breadth of the insurance industry has woken up to, writes Robin Wolstenholme, senior marketing specialist at Liferay.
  
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• Stonybrook Capital names inaugural board of directors

  11-07-2017 01:08
  Insurance industry investment bank Stonybrook Capital has set up
  a board, tapping industry veteran Ian Winchester and Holborn COO
  John DiGregoria as independent directors along with three insiders
  for the new governing panel.
  The three insiders include Stonybrook founder Joe Scheerer and
  colleagues Ravi Arps and Dwight Evans, the Arch Capital co-founder
  who at separate times led its reinsurance group and White Mountains
  Re as CEO.
  Evans is New York-based Stonybrook's senior managing
  director, wh
  
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• Kingstone sees near 14% rate cut in reinsurance treaty

  11-07-2017 01:08
  Multi-line property and casualty insurer Kingstone secured a
  nearly 14 percent rate reduction while raising its reinsurance
  cover almost 28 percent for the treaty year that began July 1, the
  company said today.
  Working with intermediary Aon, Kingstone raised its cover to
  $320mn x of a $5mn retention, of which its net share is $4mn, the
  Kingston, New York-based company said. It said the cost was 13.6
  percent lower on an exposure-adjusted basis compared with a year
  earlier pricing.
  For...
  
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• Assurant places $1.36bn property cat reinsurance cover

  11-07-2017 01:08
  Specialty carrier Assurant has sealed a $1.36bn property cat
  reinsurance programme with a 5 percent year-on-year reduction in
  premiums to about $125.6mn.
  Assurant detailed two separate covers in the programme for both
  US and international per-occurrence catastrophe risks in a
  statement released late today. The cover curbs the company's
  exposure to 2.8mn homeowners' and renters' policies.
  The savings put Assurant roughly in the mid-range of renewal rate reductions this year, based on
  Willis Re's
  
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