Insurance news

• HDI leads Texas chemical factory programme  

  31-08-2017 20:34
  HDI Global, the industrial insurance arm of German (re)insurance
  group Talanx, is the lead insurer on the property programme for the
  Texas chemical plant that is currently on fire, following heavy
  flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey.
  The global property programme for the plant's owner Arkema
  is understood to have been placed by Marsh, and covers 136
  facilities worldwide.
  Market sources told sister title Inside
  FAC that the risk is also facultatively reinsured in
  the international market, with ca
  
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• Marsh hires Aon's Nayler to lead UK financial institutions

  31-08-2017 16:54
  David Nayler, Aon UK's former head of financial and
  professional services, has agreed to move to Marsh to lead its UK
  financial institutions industry practice, the broker announced
  today.
  Reporting to Charles Beresford-Davies, risk management practice
  leader for the UK and Ireland, Nayler is expected to start at Marsh
  in early 2018.
  Nayler has worked at Aon since 2005, having moved across from
  law firm Eversheds, where he was an associate solicitor. Nayler is
  also chairman of the British Insuran
  
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• Kingham to leave Willis Re for Aeolus

  31-08-2017 16:54
  Retro and collateralised reinsurance specialist Henry Kingham has
  left Willis Re Bermuda to join Aeolus, The Insurance
  Insider can reveal.
  According to market sources, the executive will take up a senior
  underwriting role at the Bermudian asset manager.
  The position is thought to be subject to gaining immigration
  clearance.
  Kingham was most recently executive vice president at Willis Re
  on the island, with a focus on retro and the collateralised
  reinsurance market and reporting to London-based W
  
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• Ascot unveils first Ethos MGA

  31-08-2017 16:54
  Ascot Group has launched Vertical Underwriting Managers (VUM), the
  first US specialty MGA under its Ethos Specialty Insurance Services
  platform, the carrier announced today.
  The ambitious new MGA platform has secured the services of Joe
  Calise from Guy Carpenter to run VUM as CEO.
  Calise was most recently managing director at the reinsurance
  broker, leading its nationwide programs practice in the US.
  It has also hired former WKFC head of casualty Adam Schnell as
  chief casualty officer of the veh
  
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• GRP-owned Marshall Wooldridge buys ECS Insurance Brokers

  31-08-2017 16:32
  Sheffield-based ECS brings £4.3m of GWP to the broker.
  
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• GRP regional hub makes first acquisition

  31-08-2017 16:22
  GRP regional hub buys £4.3m GWP broker
  
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• Executive assistant: Rising to the top

  31-08-2017 15:12
  In this first instalment of the new series, Insurance Age meets Becky Bennett, current executive assistant to Allianz chief underwriting officer Neil Clutterbuck, and Stephanie Ogden, former executive assistant to Allianz general manager Simon McGinn
  
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• Market moves: Back to business

  31-08-2017 15:11
  The summer is typically a time when the sector slows down but there was hardly a lull in people moves with numerous companies reporting new hires
  
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• Video: Personal lines, claims and technology

  31-08-2017 15:09
  Insurer Coplus talks to Insurance Age about how technology is changing personal lines claims and outlines the importance of a smooth claims process.
  
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• Fosun: Berkshire on its mind

  31-08-2017 14:00 via ft.com
  Insurance aside, the differences between the two companies are glaring
  
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• Meet the Leeds Expo panellists – Tim Mortimer

  31-08-2017 13:23
  Bluefin's regional director shares his thoughts on local insurers and technology ahead of the live debate.
  
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• Former MMC vice chair Bob Newhouse dies

  31-08-2017 13:21
  Robert "Bob" J Newhouse Jr, the former vice chairman of
  Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC), has died following a brief
  illness.
  Newhouse began his career in the insurance industry in 1954 and
  spent much of his working life with MMC, serving as a senior
  executive for Guy Carpenter and retiring as vice chairman of MMC in
  1990.
  He was also known as one of the architects of the Bermuda
  insurance industry and was a key player in the formation and...
  
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• EMC Insurance COO to retire in 2018

  31-08-2017 13:21
  P&C (re)insurer EMC Insurance Group has announced that its
  chief operating officer Kevin Hovick is to retire in January
  2018.
  Hovick, who is also an executive vice president at the firm, has
  worked in the P&C industry for more than 38 years, and has held
  his current role for the past six years.
  As COO, he oversees 21 profit centres, including 16 EMC branch
  offices.
  Hovick has worked at EMC since 1979, starting out as an
  underwriter in the Des...
  
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• Downstream, chemicals sectors hit by Harvey

  31-08-2017 13:21
  Flood damage from Harvey has crippled several Texan refineries
  and industrial complexes, with explosions reported from an Arkema
  chemicals facility.
  The company's warning yesterday that its Crosby, Texas,
  plant could explode appears to have come to pass, with the BBC and
  other news outlets reporting blasts and black smoke coming from the
  facility as of mid-morning London time.
  The site has been shut since Friday, heavily flooded and without
  electricity since early Sunday morning.
  Arkema manufact
  
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• New Ascot MGA launches first unit

  31-08-2017 13:05
  New Ascot MGA Ethos launches unit to write non-life business
  
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• Ascot launches P&C MGA Vertical

  31-08-2017 12:47
  Ascot Group has launched Vertical Underwriting Managers, a specialty managing general agent cell under Ethos Specialty Insurance Services.
  
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• CMC has license revoked by Claims Management Regulator

  31-08-2017 12:24
  A holiday-sickness firm has had its license revoked by the Claims Management Regulator after it had encouraged holiday goers to fabricate gastric illness claims.
  
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• Lloyd's syndicates file counterclaim in Kanye West $10m insurance claim

  31-08-2017 10:53 via insuranceage.co.uk
  Insurers file countersuit to rapper’s demand for payout for cancelled dates, saying it has found discrepancies in his medical history.
  
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• Lloyd's syndicates file counterclaim against Kanye West

  31-08-2017 10:34
  Multiple Lloyd’s syndicates have filed a counterclaim against singer Kanye West.
  
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• Opinion: NFIP flaws

  31-08-2017 10:33
  The inundation of Houston this week undoubtedly will expose the
  most fundamental flaws in the National Flood Insurance Program
  (NFIP), a creation of the same government that ushered in
  then-president Lyndon Johnson's Great Society social welfare
  programmes in the 1960s.
  The NFIP was not supposed to be a source of subsidies.
  Yet today it is widely criticised as a wealth transfer mechanism
  that bails out the owners of homes in choice, high-value locations
  such as beach fronts and charges below-mar
  
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• NFIP reinsurers likely to take total loss: Fitch

  31-08-2017 10:33
  Reinsurers on the National Flood Insurance Program's (NFIP)
  $1bn reinsurance programme are likely to suffer a total loss on the
  cover, although at a company level the losses will be manageable,
  Fitch Ratings has said.
  The NFIP placed its first significant reinsurance program in
  January 2017, ceding $1.042bn of coverage to a group of 25 private
  reinsurers and Lloyd's syndicates in an effort to reduce the
  accumulation of future debt to the US Treasury.
  In a report yesterday, the rating...
  
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• Lloyd's insurers file counterclaim in Kanye West dispute

  31-08-2017 10:33
  A consortium of Lloyd's underwriters have filed a
  counterclaim in an ongoing lawsuit against rapper Kanye West,
  citing "substantial irregularities" in the artist's
  medical history.
  West originallysued his contingency underwriters for $10mn in a claims
  dispute, after the insurers refused to pay out for the final 21
  dates on his Saint Pablo tour, which were cancelled when he fell
  ill in November.The full consortium of insurers include Cathedral Syndicate
  2010, Liberty Syndicate 4472, XL Catlin Syn
  
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• Arkema says Texan chemical plant at risk of explosion

  31-08-2017 10:33
  Chemical firm Arkema has warned its plant in Crosby, Texas,
  could explode after the building was inundated with floodwater in
  the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
  Arkema said yesterday that the site has been shut down since
  Friday (25 August), and has been heavily flooded and without
  electricity since early Sunday morning.
  Back-up generators have also been largely inundated with water,
  after the site received about 40 inches of rain by Monday
  afternoon.
  Arkema manufactures organic peroxides at the
  
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• Opinion: Nick Garner on unrated insurers and customer choice in motor

  31-08-2017 10:19
  Drive Further’s Nick Garner writes in defence of unrated insurers and argues that they add choice for consumers in the motor maket
  
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• Review: In the salon

  31-08-2017 10:18
  Covéa packaged retail and salons
  
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• Editor's letter - September 2017

  31-08-2017 10:00
  Half full or half empty? Reaction to the Allianz takeover of LV has been largely positive
  
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• Allianz agrees to buy Nigerian Ensure from Greenoaks

  31-08-2017 07:04
  Allianz has agreed to buy a majority stake in Nigerian
  multi-line insurer Ensure from Greenoaks Global Holdings to broaden
  its operations in Africa, the German financial giant said
  today.
  Ensure had gross premiums of about EUR11mn ($13mn) last year
  from life as well as property lines, Allianz said. It did not
  disclose terms of the deal.
  Allianz plans to pay $35mn for the insurer, Reuters reported
  from Lagos without citing a source.
  London-based Greenoaks, which invests in insurance assets in...
  
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• Telematics shock – White van men are Britain's safest drivers

  31-08-2017 07:00
  Telematics firm Quartix data shows white van men are Britain’s safest drivers
  
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• Blog: How to make your MGA stand out

  31-08-2017 07:00
  Managing general agents need to differentiate themselves to boost their income, advises Ed Halsey, sales and marketing director at Schemeserve.
  
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• Axa's Tanguy Touffut on how Big Data is enabling parametric insurance

  31-08-2017 07:00
  Big Data and satellite technology are enabling parametric insurance, which is set to benefit the agriculture and energy sectors, explains Tanguy Touffut, CEO of Axa Global Parametrics.
  
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• Harvey claims start coming in even as flooding goes on

  31-08-2017 02:22
  Claims stemming from Hurricane Harvey started rolling in today
  even before the scale of the historic storm has been fully
  defined.
  Victims of Harvey's floods had filed 35,000 claims against
  their National Flood Insurance Program policies by midday today
  while about 70,000 auto claims had been submitted to insurers,
  according to Mark Hanna, a spokesman with the Insurance Council of
  Texas.
  "That number does not include those without comprehensive
  insurance," Hanna said of the auto claims. "And tha
  
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