Insurance news

• PatNat leadership change spurs surge in shares

  14-07-2017 21:31
  Shares in US insurance services provider Patriot National jumped
  as much as 28 percent today as investors reacted positively to the
  departure of company founder and CEO Steven Mariano.
  The gain on the New York Stock Exchange came as investors
  digested Mariano's replacement by Patriot Underwriters CEO John
  Rearer, announced after normal trading had ended
  yesterday.
  Mariano, who retained his majority stake in the outsourcing
  services provider, resigned as chairman, CEO and president on 10
  July and
  
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• Small banks warn of retrenchment under no-deal Brexit

  14-07-2017 20:02
  BoE assesses contingency plans in event of worst-case scenarios on leaving EU
  
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• Small banks warn of ‘hard Brexit’ operating issues

  14-07-2017 20:02
  BoE’s Prudential Regulation Authority assesses contingency plans
  
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• Insurers and brokers warned as FCA fines compliance officer £75,000

  14-07-2017 17:19
  
  Compliance officer fine is a ‘game changer’ in the financial services regulatory landscape
  
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• Insurers and brokers warned as FCA fines compliance man £75,000

  14-07-2017 17:19
  
  Compliance officer fine is a ‘game changer’ in the financial services regulatory landscape
  
  Read more

• Taking pensions cash before 65 is the ‘new norm’

  14-07-2017 17:14
  City regulator’s review of pension freedoms highlights risk of drawdown products
  
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• Insurance Cares: Where can insurance brokers help vulnerable customers?

  14-07-2017 16:49
  
  Broker Network’s Richard Pitt explains five key ways brokers can look after their clients.
  
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• Quizzical questions: 14 July 2017

  14-07-2017 16:37
  
  Test your knowledge of the week's news with our topical quiz.
  
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• Towergate owner rebrands as Ardonagh

  14-07-2017 15:57
  The private equity-backed owner of Towergate has rebranded
  itself after a corporate restructuring that brought together a
  clutch of insurance businesses under a single corporate entity.
  KIRS, the holding company which also houses brokers Autonet,
  Chase Templeton, Ryan Direct Group, and Price Forbes, has become
  The Ardonagh Group, the company said today.
  Ardonagh CEO David Ross said: "Ardonagh is a combination of
  the Celtic words for 'on high' and 'warrior'.
  "Finding a unique company name is no m
  
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• Tokio Millennium Re hires Lloyd's Secrett

  14-07-2017 15:57
  Lloyd's interim head of underwriting performance Brian
  Secrett is to leave the Corporation to join Tokio Millennium Re in
  the new role of chief underwriting officer.
  Secrett will be based in London and take up the post at Tokio
  Millennium Re on 1 October. He will also join the reinsurer's
  executive committee.
  Tokio Millennium Re said the position "further strengthens
  TMR's focus on analytics to better serve TMR's customers
  and achieve superior underwriting results".
  Secrettjoined Lloyd's from Pa
  
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• Planned import tax to lift California premiums by $1.9bn: think tank

  14-07-2017 15:57
  The proposed border-adjustment tax (BAT) on imports of goods and
  services into the US could lift P&C insurance costs for
  Californian consumers by $1.91bn over the next decade, according to
  free-market think tank R Street.
  The potential levy, part of a wider package of planned tax
  reforms under President Donald Trump, would hit California
  particularly hard since insurers in the state, in common with those
  in other cat-prone locations, cede a large proportion of their
  risks to foreign reinsure
  
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• Opinion: Blockchain buzz

  14-07-2017 15:57
  So much buzz and noise has surrounded blockchain technology that
  some industry executives see it as little more than a chimerical
  device used by entrepreneurs in search of venture funding.
  As in, if you come up with cash, we will build it. For those who
  can recall the froth of the dotcom boom of the late 1990s (or who
  can still enumerate their losses from that era), there are plenty
  of reasons to be sceptical of outsized claims about any...
  
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• Enstar sues former finance exec over tweets

  14-07-2017 15:57
  Enstar is suing Gareth Nokes, the former CFO of its live
  subsidiary StarStone, after he accused the firm's executives of
  manipulating financial statements for their own gain.
  The legacy-to-live giant said Nokes made the "untrue,
  inaccurate and disparaging" allegations after he was made
  redundant in a bid to increase his payout.
  The claims made by Nokes relate to Enstar's live carrier
  Starstone. He looked after the insurer's finances from the time
  Enstar acquired it in April 2014 until he was...
  
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• Axis to go live with managing agency

  14-07-2017 15:57
  Axis Capital has received final authorisation from Lloyd's and
  the UK's financial regulators to launch its own managing agent,
  the carrier revealed today.
  Effective from 4 August, Axis Managing Agency will assume the
  running of Axis Syndicate 1686 at Lloyd's, replacing
  third-party managing agent Asta, which has been in place since
  2014.
  Syndicate 1686 underwrites specialty classes including marine,
  energy, aviation, terrorism, property, casualty, professional
  indemnity and reinsurance.
  Mark Greg
  
  Read more

• Week in Post: Brexit, redundancies and consolidation

  14-07-2017 13:20
  
  This week we saw the ‘Great Repeal Bill’ being introduced to parliament, a key waypoint on the long and arduous journey to leaving the European Union.
  
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• TV character Mr Benn returns in various guises to plug insurance

  14-07-2017 13:01
  
  Iconic seventies cartoon hero emerges from the fancy dress shop to promote new brand
  
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• Blog: Getting a new perspective on prestige motor insurance

  14-07-2017 12:59 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  Team ERS completed Gumball 3000 and lived to tell the tale. Now it’s time to share their learnings for brokers.
  
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• Sirius expands environmental team with key hires

  14-07-2017 12:48
  Sirius Group has bolstered its new environmental team with two
  senior hires under division chief Doug Stepenosky, The
  Insurance Insider can report.
  Stepenosky, who joined the Bermuda-based carrier earlier this
  year to establish and build the specialty unit, has recruited
  Robert Potter as senior vice president of environmental from Great
  American, and Bob Albanese as vice president and environmental
  claims manager from Starr.
  Additional hires in the pipeline will shortly bring the team to
  15 memb
  
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• Opinion: Probitas' unlikely backer

  14-07-2017 12:48
  First the Panamanians, now the Saudis. In a market dominated by
  capital from established western insurance hubs, you could argue
  that Probitas CEO Ash Bathia keeps unusual bedfellows.
  Probitas has had the most vexed start to life of any recent
  Lloyd's business. It suffered delays through 2015 as it
  struggled its way through the Lloyd's new entrants'
  process, eventually limping over the line in September in time to
  write £3mn ($3.9mn) of business before year-end.
  And then less than a...
  
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• Former Ariel CEO and AFG mint venture capital firm

  14-07-2017 12:48
  Former Ariel Re CEO Tom Milligan has teamed up with American
  Financial Group (AFG) to establish a venture capital firm that will
  help entrepreneurs launch underwriting businesses, The
  Insurance Insider can reveal.
  Sources said that AmWins is also involved in the project, which
  is called Beat Capital Partners, with the US wholesale distribution
  giant's president and vice chairman Skip Cooper taking a place
  on its board as a non-executive director.
  It is understood that Beat has already quietly ma
  
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• Chubb names leadership for casualty units

  14-07-2017 12:48
  Chubb has appointed Bill Rabl as head of its North American
  casualty unit, in a re-shuffle of the division's senior
  leadership.
  The company said on 13 July that Rabl has become an executive
  vice president at Chubb, leading the global casualty team for large
  corporates headquartered in the US and Canada.
  Rabl was a senior executive at legacy Ace, having started at the
  carrier in 2002, and was previously chief operating officer of
  Chubb's global casualty business. Based in New...
  
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• Cat events to reduce National Security Q2 earnings

  14-07-2017 12:48
  US regional insurer National Security Group has estimated that
  its P&C unit incurred $4.8mn in second quarter catastrophe
  losses from 13 events, more than double the hit recorded in Q2
  2016.
  Net of tax, these losses are expected to reduce second quarter
  net profit by $3.2mn, or $1.25 per share, the carrier said.
  In the six months to 30 June, National Security Fire &
  Casualty Company was impacted by 21 catastrophe events producing
  1,856 policyholder claims with estimated losses expected..
  
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• Towergate holding group rebrands as Ardonagh Group

  14-07-2017 12:39
  
  New name replaces KIRS which covered Towergate, Autonet, Direct Group, Chase Templeton and Price Forbes but businesses will retain their own brands.
  
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• Kelliher posts small turnover rise for 2016

  14-07-2017 11:58
  
  Broker's profits remain flat for the year.
  
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• Co-op Insurance will take part in FCA regulatory sandbox next month

  14-07-2017 11:52
  
  Co-op insurance will be taking part in the FCA’s Sandbox within the next month and is aiming to make the business even more digital.
  
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• Co-op Insurance weighing up FCA sandbox application to boost digital presence

  14-07-2017 11:52
  
  Co-op insurance is considering submitting an application to the FCA’s Sandbox as it seeks to make the business even more digital.
  
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• Revealed: Top hotspots amid UK's booming opportunistic fraud

  14-07-2017 11:16
  
  Law firm warns opportunistic fraud is massively on the rise
  
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• Huge Bupa customer data breach blamed on rogue employee

  14-07-2017 10:53
  
  Bupa customer data breach not caused by cyber attack, company insists
  
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• Bupa data breach could have led to £440m fine under GDPR rules

  14-07-2017 10:30
  
  Bupa’s breach of 108,000 records could have cost the company £440m under data protection rules to be introduced next year.
  
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• Bupa forced to apologise to 108,000 customers after data breach

  14-07-2017 09:58
  
  Health insurer Bupa has been forced to inform 108,000 of its customers of a data breach after an employee “inappropriately copied and removed” sensitive information.
  
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• Oceanwide, Genworth discuss deal extension

  14-07-2017 09:49
  New York-listed life insurer Genworth is in talks with agreed
  bidder China Oceanwide about extending their $2.7bn takeover deal
  amid a new delay at the Committee on Foreign Investment in the
  United States (Cfius).
  The companies said yesterday they had for the second time
  withdrawn and refiled their merger notice with the regulator and
  are in talks about extending the ultimate 31 August deadline
  stipulated in their October agreement.
  Genworth president and CEO Tom McInerney said: "The
  Genworth bo
  
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• Blog: Telematics should be a given

  14-07-2017 07:00
  
  Telematics insurance has become much easier and cost-effective for brokers and insurers to offer, says Selim Cavanagh, vice-president, Insurance, at Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions UK & Ireland, arguing it should now be a given.
  
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• Insurers urged to widen UK terror cover after London attacks

  14-07-2017 06:02
  Minister seeks talks as Borough Market traders highlight financial impact of assault
  
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• Patriot National founder Mariano steps down

  14-07-2017 02:09
  Insurance technology and outsourcing provider Patriot
  National's founder and CEO Steven Mariano, who is also the
  company's majority shareholder, has stepped down from his
  operational roles and was replaced by the head of the company's
  underwriting unit, John Rearer.
  Mariano offered his resignation as chairman, CEO and president
  on 10 July and the board provided him with a separation agreement
  on yesterday, the publicly listed company said today after normal
  trading had ended.
  PatNat stock subseq
  
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