Insurance news

• WR Berkley profits hold steady

  25-07-2017 23:45
  WR Berkley has reported flat net income per share of $0.85 in the
  second quarter as its underwriting result was almost unchanged
  year-on-year.
  The US special insurer posted a headline combined ratio of 95.1
  percent, just 20 basis points worse than the year-ago period, while
  net investment income ticked up by 4.8 percent to $135mn.
  Janney analyst Larry Greenberg said that operating earnings per
  share were $0.64 compared to his $0.70 estimate, with the shares
  likely to have a negative...
  
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• Chubb's cost savings drive Q2 outperformance

  25-07-2017 23:45
  Insurance giant Chubb reported second quarter operating earnings of
  $2.50 per share, exceeding market expectations of $2.47 per share
  and the result achieved in the same period last year by $0.25.
  This translated into an operating return on equity of 9.8
  percent, 50 basis points (bps) higher than in the corresponding
  period last year.
  The carrier benefited from an improved underwriting performance
  compared to the prior-year period, with its P&C Q2 combined
  ratio down 3.2 percentage points to
  
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• Aquiline's InsurTech fund closes at $190mn

  25-07-2017 23:45
  Aquiline has brought to an end the most ambitious InsurTech capital
  raise to date, closing its new fund with around $190mn in
  commitments.
  Investments in the Aquiline Technology Growth Fund (ATG) exceeded
  the $150mn target originally set out by the private equity fund,
  which is led by former Marsh & McLennan Companies CEO Jeff
  Greenberg.
  Aquiline has already proved its credentials in the InsurTech
  space via its investment in UK SME distribution playSimply Business, trebling its investors' mo
  
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• Berkshire exploring IRB stake acquisition: reports

  25-07-2017 21:38
  Berkshire Hathaway is in talks with IRB Brasil Resseguros about
  buying a minority stake in the Brazilian reinsurer after it goes
  public later this month, Bloomberg reported today.
  IRB published a prospectus earlier in July for a listing of over
  a fifth of its shares, with the proposed raising in the region of
  $600mn. The carrier was Brazil's monopoly reinsurer until
  2007.
  Bloomberg has linked Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary
  General Re with the deal.
  IRB is currently 27 percent owned by...
  
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• Willis hones political violence offer with TerrorMar structure

  25-07-2017 19:21
  A recently introduced Willis Towers Watson broking structure for
  terrorism cover has underlined the increasing facilitisation of the
  political violence market in London.
  The launch of TerrorMar late last year was the latest in a
  series of terrorism facilities stretching back to the launch of
  Marsh's $500mn-limit placing structure in December 2014.
  Willis's own flagship facility, Willis Global 360, also
  includes terror risks.
  The broker is understood to have approached certain carriers
  only about
  
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• Ogden rate cut pushes QIC to P&C underwriting loss

  25-07-2017 19:21
  Qatar Insurance Company (QIC) Group fell to an underwriting loss in
  its non-life business in the first half of the year amid an
  "ultra-soft underwriting environment" and a $31mn reserve
  charge stemming from the Ogden rate change in the UK.
  The company's non-life combined ratio deteriorated by 4.6
  percentage points year-on-year to 101.5 percent in the six months
  to 30 June 2017.
  QIC strengthened its motor reserves by $31mn as a result of the
  February decision to slash the UK...
  
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• Axa partners with Uber to provide employee cover

  25-07-2017 17:42
  Uber and Axa have signed a partnership that will see France-based independent Uber employees receiving insurance cover for free.
  
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• InsurTech Futures: CDL set to launch chatbot solution

  25-07-2017 17:04 via insuranceage.co.uk
  New offering to help brokers interact with customers through digital channels.
  
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• Allianz wins naming rights to Minnesota United stadium

  25-07-2017 16:21
  Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America has signed a multi-year naming rights agreement with Minnesota United FC which will see the team’s stadium named “Allianz Field”.
  
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• New Biba app aims to slash commercial motor claims costs

  25-07-2017 15:39
  New Biba app can also cut claims reporting time by 90%, trade body says
  
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• InsurTech Futures: Biba launches claims app

  25-07-2017 15:36 via insuranceage.co.uk
  Trade body teams up with Insure Apps on new InsurTech offering with aim to reduce claims reporting time and costs.
  
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• Two reinsurer sidecars lapse

  25-07-2017 13:58
  Two reinsurer sidecar vehicles have not been renewed in 2017 as
  Scor and PartnerRe each decided they no longer needed retrocession
  cover in this format, sister publication Trading
  Risk revealed last week.
  PartnerRe still maintains two other capital market vehicles, but
  has not renewed its $50mn Demeter Re crop sidecar.
  This reflected the fact that the carrier no longer required
  retro support for its US crop business.
  PartnerRe said it had decided to retain these
  exposures as it was building...
  
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• Talbot replaces QBE as lead on Aon Alpha facility

  25-07-2017 13:58
  Talbot has taken over QBE Europe's role leading North American
  business for one of the largest facilities in the terrorism market,
  The Insurance Insider can reveal.
  Aon's flagship Alpha facility,which has a limit of $500mn , is bound using Aon-owned MGA
  Maven, part of Aon Underwriting Management.The facility went live in July 2015, with Chaucer and Liberty
  the joint leaders for the international business. For North
  American business, Validus-owned Talbot now sits alongside XL
  Catlin, which retai
  
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• Sovag to dispose of EUR120mn run-off book

  25-07-2017 13:58
  Hamburg-headquartered insurer Schwarzmeer und Ostsee
  Versicherungsaktiengesellschaft, known as Sovag, is bringing a
  legacy book holding EUR120mn ($140mn) of gross reserves to market,
  The Insurance Insider understands.
  Sources told this publication the book holds a range of
  liabilities from business written out of London and several
  European countries.
  One-third of the book is understood to be reinsurance business
  written out of London, with the liabilities spanning a number of
  classes and dating
  
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• Solicitors' PI premiums drop 1.3% in 2016: Law Society

  25-07-2017 13:58
  The mean cost of premiums for UK solicitors' professional
  indemnity (PI) cover dropped by 1.3 percent last year, according to
  The Law Society.
  In a report on the market's 2016 renewals released today,
  the organisation said the average cost of premium had fallen, but
  as a percentage of turnover the average premium cost remained flat
  at 4.8 percent, while the mean excess rose by 7.0 percent to
  £4,737.50 ($6,174.86).
  The mean premium across all firms was £26,853. Insureds
  with between..
  
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• Reinsurers braced for surge in ADC demand

  25-07-2017 13:58
  The reinsurance community is expecting further demand for
  adverse development covers (ADCs) as a combination of soft market
  conditions, low interest rates and reserve adequacy concerns pushes
  carriers to scrutinise their back books.
  In the last six months there has been a flurry of high-profile
  ADCs, with insurers including AIG, AmTrust, QBE, The Hartford and
  RSA all turning to the reinsurance market to address their
  needs.
  In a greater push for capital optimisation and efficiency,
  cedants have
  
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• Opinion: The Great European Legacy Sell-off

  25-07-2017 13:58
  The legacy market has long eyed the array of continental European
  liabilities piled up on carrier balance sheets, just waiting to be
  released.
  PwC estimates the volume of continental European legacy
  liabilities at just under EUR200bn ($233bn), but to date less than
  a sliver of this sum has been transferred to the run-off
  market.
  For the past few years now there has been much talk about what
  will trigger The Great European Legacy Sell-off.
  The implementation of Solvency II at...
  
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• Opinion: Latest D&O claim is loss London doesn't need

  25-07-2017 13:58
  Who would be a D&O underwriter?
  That rates have been close to punishing for a long time is not
  news, but with coverage terms becoming ever broader and the number
  of securities class actions rising month-on-month, it's
  becoming tougher to make D&O profitable.
  Since the financial crisis claims have tripled in this class of
  business, with Marsh reportedly receiving 1,300 D&O claim
  notifications in the UK annually.
  Combine that with rates that appear to be in perpetual freefall
  and a...
  
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• New ILS regulations welcolmed as 'workable' framework

  25-07-2017 13:58
  Reaction to the UK government's insurance-linked securities
  (ILS) regulations released last week has been positive, with market
  participants saying their concerns about earlier draft proposals
  had been noted and the end result was a framework they could work
  with.
  The project has been beset by delays, but the publication of the
  regulations before the parliamentary summer recess means the new
  legislation is likely to be in place for the 1 January
  renewals.
  However, the industry is still waiting f
  
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• Loss fund service could return millions to syndicates

  25-07-2017 13:58
  London market insurers are collectively missing out on more than
  £200mn ($260mn) in historic loss funds, according to insurance
  services firm Ambant.
  Loss funds, the money held in trust by third-party
  administrators on behalf of carriers to pay claims below a set
  value, are often found to be in surplus at the end of the typical
  three-year accounting period.
  However, Ambant has found that many carriers believe it is not
  worth the time and effort to recover what is left....
  
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• London D&O market braces for Slater and Gordon claim

  25-07-2017 13:58
  The London directors' and officers' (D&O) market is
  facing a claim of around $26mn following a settlement by Australian
  law firm Slater and Gordon with its shareholders.
  A class action suit brought by thousands of shareholders against
  the law firm was settled in principle earlier this month for
  A$36.5mn ($29.0mn), the company said. About A$32.5mn of the
  settlement is to be paid for out of the firm's D&O
  coverage.
  The settlement was agreed without admission of liability and is
  subject...
  
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• Developing nations insurance and Brexit top IIS conference agenda

  25-07-2017 13:58
  Brexit and a new catastrophe insurance scheme for developing
  countries dominated the agenda at the International Insurance
  Society (IIS)'s Global Insurance Forum in London last week, as
  executives gathered to discuss the future of the industry.
  The climax of the event was an announcement that the World Bank
  will collaborate with the UK and German governments to support
  efforts to introduce parametric catastrophe insurance to developing
  countries.
  The Washington-based organisation will deploy sta
  
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• Allianz appoints John Berry as director of underwriting and technical for personal lines

  25-07-2017 12:30
  Allianz has appointed John Berry as director of underwriting and technical, personal lines.
  
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• Law firm faces fraud probe after losing NFU Mutual court battle

  25-07-2017 12:19
  Law firm ordered to pay costs after NFU Mutual court battle
  
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• Zurich’s Richard Coleman resurfaces at insurance data firm

  25-07-2017 12:15
  Zurich UK commercial broker head Richard Coleman joins analytics company
  
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• Blockchain claims system triumphs at Simply Business hackathon

  25-07-2017 11:41
  Simply Business hackathon aims to determine scale of disruption to industry
  
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• Opinion: Transitioning

  25-07-2017 11:31
  The government of UK prime minister Theresa May is about to make it
  easier to transition.
  It hopes to give transgender people the right to change their
  legal gender without a medical diagnosis. It also wants to reassure
  businesses facing trade dysmorphia that life will go on after March
  2019.
  In the nomenclature of Brexit the "transition period"
  has for months been the buzz phrase du jour. Once Article 50 was
  "triggered", the "cliff edge" became the
  financial sector's biggest...
  
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• #Insagepeople: 24 - 30 July 2017

  25-07-2017 11:29 via insuranceage.co.uk
  Keep up to date with the latest people moves.
  
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• Direct Line: UK not yet ready for driverless cars

  25-07-2017 11:10
  Survey shows UK drivers still sceptical about driverless cars
  
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• Moneysupermarket.com fined £80,000 by Information Commissioner’s Office

  25-07-2017 10:26 via insuranceage.co.uk
  The aggregator sent 7.1m emails to customers who had opted out of receiving marketing correspondence via the web.
  
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• Legal Update: Catastrophic injury claimants can benefit from assistive technology

  25-07-2017 10:18
  Assistive technology can provide a cost-effective way of helping claimants with catastrophic injuries, explains Malcolm Henké, partner at Horwich Farrelly.
  
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• Ironshore International names Ethirajan as COO

  25-07-2017 09:06
  Ironshore has promoted Krishnan Ethirajan to chief operating
  officer (COO) of global underwriting unit Ironshore
  International.
  Ethirajan will also retain his current responsibilities as chief
  operations officer of IronServe, the company's support
  operations unit.
  Prior to joining the carrier in 2012 he served as insurance
  sector leader for the services and operations practice of PwC.
  Before that the executive served in various management positions
  with Allstate Insurance in addition to a spell
  
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• Swiftcover too slow to pay me back excess after crash

  25-07-2017 08:00
  It arranged for repairs to my car after I paid £250 and now refuses to reimburse me. The other driver is insured by Axa, which owns SwiftcoverI was involved in a car accident in August 2016 – a van hit me from behind as I waited at a roundabout. I collected the contact details of the van driver and contacted my insurance company, Swiftcover. It arranged for the repairs to my car to be carried out, which were to my satisfaction. But to do this I had to pay the excess on my policy of &
  
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• Blog: Digitisation and the battle for relevance

  25-07-2017 07:00
  Digital technologies offer insurers the opportunity to reconnect with their clients and earn back their trust, writes Robin Wolstenholme, senior marketing specialist at Liferay.
  
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• Meadowbrook promotes Browning to CUO

  25-07-2017 01:37
  Fosun-owned insurer Meadowbrook has promoted the former senior
  vice president of its admitted carrier operations Fred Browning to
  become chief underwriting officer.
  In the new role, Browning will take charge of the insurer's
  corporate underwriting functions and report to chief operating
  officer Nathan Voorhis.
  The executive joined Meadowbrook in April last year. Before that
  he was a managing partner for an intermediary and insurance
  consulting firm.
  He replaces Roger Walleck who left Meadowbrook
  
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• Everest beats as Q2 profits climb 70 percent

  25-07-2017 01:37
  Everest Re reported second quarter operating profits of $227.5mn
  that were up 70 percent on the prior-year period as it reported
  strong top line growth and an improving combined ratio.At $5.51 a share, the performance was also 27 cents a share higher
  than Wall Street forecasts, according to a consensus of analysts
  compiled by Marketwatch.Gross written premiums (GWP) climbed by 17 percent to $1.6bn,
  including 14 percent growth in reinsurance top line and 25 percent
  in insurance.The...
  
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