Insurance news

• Insurance Cares: Careful and sensitive communication helps vulnerable customers

  24-08-2017 15:43
  MA Assist's Jorge Gonzalo discusses how sharing information between brokers and insurers can help customers.
  
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• Motor premiums to rise while government delays Ogden consultation feedback

  24-08-2017 15:38
  The Ministry of Justice’s decision to delay the Ogden consultation feedback may push motor premiums up.
  
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• Calling all Birmingham brokers – Broker Apprentice open for interviews

  24-08-2017 15:32
  Insurance Age to host interviews in the city on 19 September – with dates also available in Manchester, London and for the first time ever by Skype.
  
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• Mitsui returns to major M&A with $1.6bn First Capital buy

  24-08-2017 14:11
  Mitsui Sumitomo has re-entered the large-scale P&C M&A fray
  with a 3.3x book value agreement to buy Singapore's First
  Capital.
  The unexpected $1.6bn deal with Fairfax Financial will extend
  the Japanese buyer's general insurance market leadership in the
  Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) region, where gross
  domestic product is expanding at around 5 percent and where
  insurers tend to trade hands for higher multiples than in the
  West.
  It gives Mitsui the leading P&C insurer in Sin
  
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• JLT Re names Americas strategic advisory head

  24-08-2017 14:11
  JLT Re has appointed Nick Dranchak to head of strategic advisory
  for the Americas, it announced today.
  Dranchak will lead JLT Re's advisory services in the US,
  Canada and throughout Central and South America.
  He will report to Mark Shumway, global head of strategic
  advisory, and will continue to be based in Philadelphia.
  Dranchak joined JLT Re's strategic advisory team in 2014.
  Prior to this, he spent six years as a senior financial analyst at
  ratings agency AM Best....
  
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• Hurricane losses would expose Lloyd's returns: Peel Hunt

  24-08-2017 14:11
  As Tropical Storm Harvey heads towards the Texas Coast, Peel Hunt
  analysts have warned that even a series of modest hurricane losses
  would highlight the low double-digit returns at Lloyd's
  insurers.
  In a note published this morning, Peel Hunt identified Hiscox as
  having the least exposure to hurricanes out of the listed
  Lloyd's entities, with around 8 percent of tangible net asset
  value.
  Beazley, Lancashire and Novae all have between 14 and 15 percent
  of tangible net asset value exposed,...
  
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• Card insurer CPP puts insurtech startup at centre of new UK strategy

  24-08-2017 13:43
  Old UK business of card insurer CPP in ‘managed decline’
  
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• Price and level of cover most important factors when shopping for a new policy, customers say

  24-08-2017 13:35
  Price and level of cover are the primary concerns for customers when shopping for insurance, according to research from QuickPages
  
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• Meet the techies: Keith Binley

  24-08-2017 13:25
  Keith Binley, managing director, UK and Ireland insurance at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, discusses how brokers need to use data to remain competitive.
  
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• IPT rise drives up home insurance premiums

  24-08-2017 13:02
  Consumer Intelligence says home premiums rising at fastest rate in years.
  
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• Vnuk ruling could lead to next hunting ground for CMCs, ABI warns

  24-08-2017 12:39
  The Association of British Insurers has warned that the Vnuk ruling could lead to the next ‘lucrative hunting ground’ for claims management companies due to the vagueness of implications.
  
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• The postcode lottery of pet insurance

  24-08-2017 12:03
  Fur is flying over the rising cost of pet insurance premiums in London
  
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• Majority of risk managers unprepared for major claim

  24-08-2017 11:42
  Under half of risk managers are prepared for a major claim, a survey has revealed.
  
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• Opinion: Feeling the spirit

  24-08-2017 11:37
  Managers, do you love regulation?
  Did you cheer the recently proposed extension of Solvency II
  reporting requirements, feel excited when compiling your governance
  map and experience a Proustian, first-date tingle when the man, or
  woman, from the PRA came in to discuss your underwriting
  practices?
  If not, maybe you should.
  Lying within a midsummer speech by Bank of England deputy
  governor and Prudential Regulation Authority CEO Sam Wood was an
  admonishment that some banks and insurers were trying
  
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• Hato strikes southern China

  24-08-2017 11:37
  Typhoon Hato has hit Macau and southern China at a strength of
  Category 2, leaving at least 12 dead.
  The storm made landfall in the city of Zhuhai in Guangdong
  province at around noon local time yesterday, causing widespread
  flooding, blackouts and destruction.
  A Typhoon Signal 10 - the highest in Hong Kong's storm
  warning system - was issued in the morning, and later downgraded
  throughout the day to Signal 8. Hong Kong's meteorological
  authority said Hato had maximum winds...
  
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• Anbang unit’s credit rating downgraded after premiums fall

  24-08-2017 11:36
  Latest setback for Chinese conglomerate whose chairman is presumed to be in detention
  
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• IFarm boosts regional underwriting team

  24-08-2017 11:27
  Direct Insurance Group MGA iFarm boosts regional underwriting team with new hires
  
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• IPT spurs fastest rise in home premiums in three years

  24-08-2017 11:11
  Changes to insurance premium tax have spurred the fastest rise in home premiums in three years.
  
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• Umbria Italy quake loss up 64% to €108m

  24-08-2017 11:10
  Estimated insurance industry losses from the earthquake that struck Italy in August last year has been increased by 64% to €108m (£99.4m), according to Perils.
  
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• Home insurance prices rising at ‘fastest rate for three years’

  24-08-2017 11:03
  IPT and Brexit driving surge in home insurance prices
  
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• ABI slams “unnecessary, unworkable and unfair” motor ruling

  24-08-2017 10:13
  ABI warns that owners of vehicles like golf buggies and motorised lawnmowers could be forced to take out third party insurance unless the European Commission takes action.
  
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• Perils almost doubles loss estimate for 6.0Mw Italian quake

  24-08-2017 09:38
  Catastrophe data aggregator Perils has increased its loss
  estimate for the 6.0 earthquake that struck central Italy on 24
  August 2016 from EUR66mn ($77.9mn) to EUR108mn.
  The quake killed at least 290 people in the mostly rural Umbria
  region, and devastated a number of towns and municipalities.
  In its final disclosure on this event, Perils said the loss
  estimate fell below its usual EUR200mn loss capture trigger for
  European events, but the data had been captured because of the
  significant...
  
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• Mitsui to buy Fairfax's First Capital for $1.6bn

  24-08-2017 09:38
  Canadian conglomerate Fairfax Financial has agreed to sell its
  Singapore-based P&C insurer First Capital Insurance to Mitsui
  Sumitomo for $1.6bn.
  Under the terms of the deal, Mitsui will buy 97.7 percent of
  First Capital's shares at $65.50 per share, equivalent to 3.3x
  book value.
  The transaction marks a return to Mitsui to major non-life
  insurance M&A following a hiatus after the February 2016
  closing of its £3.4bn ($4.4bn) purchase of Amlin for a price
  of 2.4 times book value.
  Th
  
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• AM Best gives ProAssurance subsidiaries a rating boost

  24-08-2017 09:38
  AM Best has upgraded the financial strength rating of three
  ProAssurance subsidiaries to A+, bringing them in line with their
  parent company.
  The ratings agency upgraded Medmarc Casualty Insurance Company,
  Noetic Specialty Insurance Company and Podiatry Insurance Company
  of America (PICA).
  It also increased their long-term issuer credit ratings from a
  to aa-.
  AM Best said: "The group's ongoing underwriting success
  is credited to management's conservative reserving practices,
  disciplined underwri
  
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• MIB urges European Commission to take action against consequences of Vnuk ruling

  24-08-2017 09:36
  The Motor Insurers’ Bureau has urged the European Commission to take action against the unmitigated consequences of the Vnuk ruling.
  
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• Industry unites to fight ‘absurd’ effects of ECJ motor ruling

  24-08-2017 07:30
  UK insurance industry responds to consultation on ECJ motor ruling
  
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• Analysis: Insurers want PI to be left out of the European services e-card

  24-08-2017 07:00
  The European Commission wants to create a professional indemnity certificate for cross-border activities but insurers and brokers find the proposal unworkable.
  
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• Harvey brings hurricane threat to Texas coast

  24-08-2017 01:42
  The remnants of tropical storm Harvey had regenerated into a
  tropical depression that could strengthen to a hurricane as it
  approaches the Texas coast later this week, according to the
  National Hurricane Center (NHC).
  The NHC said Harvey was expected to produce total rain
  accumulations of 10 to 15 inches with isolated maximum amounts of
  20 inches over the middle and upper Texas coast and southwest
  Louisiana from Friday into early next week.
  A hurricane watch is in effect for...
  
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• Citizens CEO calls for AOB reform at rates hearing

  24-08-2017 01:42
  Citizens CEO Barry Gilway told a hearing before the Florida
  Office of Insurance Regulation (FLOIR) today that without
  legislative reform to tackle the assignment of benefits (AOB)
  crisis homeowners premiums will climb for years to come in the
  state.
  The state-backed insurer has proposed 2018 rates that call for
  double-digit increases for many South Florida homeowners where AOB
  related claims have been most prevalent.
  In his presentation, Gilway noted that the average cost of water
  claims has inc
  
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