Insurance news

• Willis Re North America adds Wafer and Livingston

  19-09-2017 22:54
  Willis Re has added significant experience to its North America
  platform with the hiring of Tom Wafer as chairman and Jeffrey
  Livingston as vice-chairman.
  They will form the "office of the chairman" for Willis Re
  North America, bolstering the senior management ranks at the unit
  as its current president James Kent prepares to take over as global
  CEO of the London-based reinsurance broker.
  In a statement, Willis Re said the new office of the chairman will
  work to strengthen client...
  
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• CNA Hardy lure Powell from Acappella to head terrorism

  19-09-2017 22:54
  CNA Hardy has hired Acapella's Jonathan Powell as head of
  terrorism, based in London, a spokesperson for the US insurer has
  confirmed.
  Powell is well regarded in the London market, having ranked second
  in The Insurance Insider league table of political violence
  underwriters, as voted by brokers.
  Andrew Davies, who wrote the CNA Hardy terror book as a senior
  underwriter, has left the carrier according to market sources.
  Powell joined Acapella in September 2015 from Talbot and began his
  insurance.
  
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• Cat 5 Maria targets Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico

  19-09-2017 22:54
  A strengthening Hurricane Maria is on track to hit the Virgin
  Islands and Puerto Rico by tomorrow as a Category 4 or 5 storm with
  sustained winds of 155 to 160mph (249-257kph), the National
  Hurricane Center (NHC) has warned.
  Once Maria crosses Puerto Rico it is expected to begin losing
  intensity and move north-northwest toward the continental US by
  Saturday, the NHC in Miami said.
  Maria struck the Caribbean island of Dominica as a cat 5 storm
  overnight with 160mph...
  
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• Arch Capital's McElroy gives up management roles

  19-09-2017 22:54
  Arch Capital's Nicolas Papadopoulo will replace David
  McElroy as chairman and CEO of Arch Worldwide Insurance Group and
  chief underwriting officer for property & casualty operations
  on 1 October after McElroy opted to reduce his duties with the
  company.
  Maamoun Rajeh, president and CEO of Arch Reinsurance Limited, or
  Arch Re (Bermuda), replaces Papadopoulo as Chairman and CEO of Arch
  Worldwide Reinsurance Group, the Bermuda-based carrier said.
  McElroy, who remains with the company in his rol
  
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• XL picks Dublin for post-Brexit EU base

  19-09-2017 20:07
  XL Group has decided to move its European headquarters to Dublin
  from London in response to Brexit, joining several other carriers
  that plan to set up EU bases there.
  XL has had a long association with Ireland, opening its first
  European insurer in Dublin in 1990 and maintaining its corporate
  headquarters there from 2010 until last year, when it moved to
  Bermuda after acquiring Catlin Group.
  In 2006, the company formed Ireland-domiciled reinsurer XL Re
  Europe, and still maintains other...
  
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• Irma US insured losses up to $27bn: CoreLogic

  19-09-2017 20:07
  Hurricane Irma's toll of industry insured property losses in
  the US may reach as much as $27.0bn or may be as low as $22.5bn,
  data analytics provider CoreLogic said today.
  This US-only loss toll compares to a range of $25bn to $35bn
  from AIR Worldwide and $18bn from Karen Clark & Company. AIR
  also estimated Caribbean insured losses of $7bn to $15bn, with
  Karen Clark putting insured losses from the region at $7bn.
  RMS is expected to issue an Irma...
  
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• Ed appoints Mena and Indian CEO

  19-09-2017 20:07
  Reinsurance, wholesale and specialty broker Ed has hired former
  Willis Group executive Minesh Jani to lead its operations in the
  Middle East and North Africa and the Indian sub-continent.
  Jani has worked in the reinsurance industry for more than two
  decades and joins Ed from Mumbai-based Aashvaasanam Analytics, a
  business which he founded.
  The executive previously led Willis's treaty reinsurance
  business in India with its local partner Almondz Insurance Brokers.
  He has also served as manager of
  
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• XL Group picks Dublin as its post-Brexit EU hub

  19-09-2017 17:59 via insuranceage.co.uk
  Insurer is to move its principal EU insurance company from the UK to Ireland next year.
  
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• XL Group chooses Dublin as its post-Brexit location

  19-09-2017 17:15
  XL Catlin has chosen Dublin as its post-Brexit location for its principal European Union insurance company, XL Insurance Company SE.
  
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• Leadenhall Market evacuated after “suspicious package”

  19-09-2017 16:47
  A number of insurance brokers are based around the historic market which was closed by City of London Police while investigations took place.
  
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• US P&C pain presents growth opportunities for E&S: Ryan

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Deteriorating underwriting results in the US commercial insurance
  sector could provide growth opportunities for the excess and
  surplus lines (E&S) market, according to Ryan Specialty
  chairman and CEO Pat Ryan.
  Speaking at the Wholesale Specialty Insurance Association event
  in San Diego last week, the executive said that it was unlikely
  that hurricanes Harvey and Irma would have enough of an impact on
  industry capital to create a market turn.
  That was because the industry capital base had gro
  
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• RSG seeking new acquisitions

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Ryan Specialty Group (RSG) is actively seeking new strategic
  acquisitions in its transactional broking and underwriting
  businesses, according to founding chairman and CEO Pat Ryan.
  In an interview with The Insurance
  Insider, the industry veteran said his firm saw
  continued opportunities from retailers' consolidation of
  wholesale panels - a trend that is now spreading to their use of
  MGUs/MGAs.
  Speaking last week at the Wholesale Specialty Insurance
  Association event in San Diego, Ryan said his f
  
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• R&Q gets green light for Rhode Island

  19-09-2017 14:51
  R&Q has received a licence to operate in Rhode Island as the
  run-off acquirer positions itself to take advantage of a new Part
  VII-style regulatory framework, The Insurance
  Insider has learned.
  The unit, called R&Q RI Insurance Company Ltd, has been
  registered in the state and is now listed on the company
  website.
  It is understood a transaction has been lined up to test the new
  regulations, although details around the proposed transfer remain
  heavily guarded.
  R&Q had noted in...
  
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• Practitioners question reliability of hurricane estimates

  19-09-2017 14:51
  The reliability of modelled hurricane estimates for Irma and
  Harvey is coming under scrutiny as insurers begin to assess the
  cost of the two events.
  While AIR, RMS, Karen Clark & Co (KCC) and others continued
  to refine their views on the insured losses from the brace of
  hurricanes that struck the US mainland earlier this month, a number
  of underwriters at Monte Carlo spoke of the wide differential
  between modelled losses for Katrina, Rita and Wilma (KRW) and the...
  
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• Nine Merchants Re in talks with new potential capital providers

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Hong Kong-based reinsurance start-up Nine Merchants Re is in active
  conversations with investors with funds outside China after
  encountering obstacles following a clampdown on domestic capital
  outflows, according to market sources.
  The reinsurer entered into discussions with the potential
  backers after increased regulatory scrutiny of outbound Chinese
  investments caused it to postpone its original start date of 1
  April 2017.
  Sources suggested the carrier remained hopeful that it could
  begin unde
  
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• Muted response to Ogden reforms predicted for 1.1

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Primary auto carriers, their brokers and reinsurers face a
  complex round of January renewal discussions after the UK
  government drafted reforms to the Ogden discount rate.
  The Justice Ministry's 7 September announcement promised
  relief to an industry that has racked up several billion pounds of
  losses after the government's 3.25 percentage point cut to the
  rate in March this year, and was universally welcomed by market
  protagonists.
  But while the ministry promised to introduce
  legislation to par
  
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• Modellers may have overshot the mark

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Early estimates of insured Irma losses in the Caribbean from
  modelling agencies have met a sceptical response in the London
  market, with sources unsure about the accuracy of early claims
  forecasts.
  RMS informed clients that it estimates Caribbean losses from
  Hurricane Irma in the range of $15bn to $20bn, customers told
  The Insurance Insider. Verisk-owned
  modelling agency AIR Worldwide reckons Caribbean losses will come
  in lower, at $7bn to $15bn.
  Modelling firms estimated far higher losses in th
  
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• Market waking up to 'worst-of-all-worlds' loss

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Early optimism around the effect of Hurricane Irma on rates is
  quickly receding as more data points emerge which suggest that even
  combined with Hurricane Harvey the storm will have only a
  manageable impact on capital levels.
  (Re)insurers are increasingly preparing themselves for a
  "worst-of-all-worlds" loss in which 2017 earnings are
  wiped out, but with only very localised or client-specific
  hardening to offer payback and drive improved returns.
  The Miami-Dade Category 5 scenario of $100bn-$150
  
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• London property insurers face BA system outage claim

  19-09-2017 14:51
  British Airways (BA) is pursuing its property insurers for a
  sizable business interruption (BI) claim after suffering a global
  system failure in May, The Insurance
  Insider understands.
  Two London market sources suggested the claim was in the region
  of £80mn ($109mn).
  The global system shutdown forced BA to cancel all flights out
  of London on 27 May, with thousands of cancellations racking up
  over the following two days.
  The firm said at the time that a loss of power to...
  
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• Lloyd's looking to centralise more functions: Beale

  19-09-2017 14:51
  The Corporation of Lloyd's is considering ways it can run more
  functions centrally in a bid to reduce the market's
  above-average 41 percent expense ratio, according to CEO Inga
  Beale.
  Speaking to The Insurance Insider at
  the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous, Beale noted that the latest initiative
  follows last year's decision to reduce subscription fees by 10
  percent and is part of a drive by the Corporation to make its
  operating model more efficient.
  "We have looked at all the services...
  
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• Lloyd's carriers wait on major Irma Caribbean losses

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Lloyd's syndicates have started to receive claims from
  insureds in the Caribbean following Hurricane Irma, with early
  indications suggesting substantial losses that will also hit
  European reinsurers hard.
  As the storm approached the US and in the immediate aftermath of
  its landfall the market's gaze was focused on Florida, where
  (re)insurers have their greatest concentration of value.
  But with damage in the US less severe than expected, greater
  attention has been directed towards the Caribbean,
  
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• Lemonade CEO: P2P moniker 'caused a lot of confusion'

  19-09-2017 14:51
  The CEO of major InsurTech start-up Lemonade has explained the
  rationale behind the firm's decision to drop its claim to be a
  peer-to-peer (P2P) insurance company earlier in the year.
  In an interview with The Insurance
  Insider, Daniel Schreiber explained that since
  Lemonade's 2016 launch the label had caused confusion, but that
  the underlying substance of the US homeowners' insurer
  hadn't changed "one iota" as a result of the semantic
  shift.
  The executive explained that because Lemonade's custom
  
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• Irma insured loss projections narrow in US

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Industry insured loss estimates for Hurricane Irma narrowed to
  no more than $50bn, including up to $15bn in Caribbean islands that
  took a direct hit from the Category 5 storm before it weakened as
  it struck Florida's southwest coast and headed inland last
  week.
  But the Atlantic hurricane season is barely half over and
  already Hurricane Maria has pummelled the island of Dominica in the
  Caribbean, and is threatening other islands. Meanwhile, another
  storm may be brewing off the coast...
  
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• Irma delivers second blow to London binders

  19-09-2017 14:51
  The London binders market is braced for a round of losses from
  Hurricane Irma, even as it continues efforts to untangle the
  consequences of Harvey in Texas.
  While it is too early to establish concrete loss figures, there
  are numerous Florida binders that bring hundreds of millions of
  dollars in premium into London.
  However, sources speaking to this publication said storm surge
  and flooding - two of the main impacts to arise out of Irma - are
  usually excluded from...
  
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• Generali EUR200mn legacy sale down to three

  19-09-2017 14:51
  The bidding process for Generali's EUR200mn ($238mn) legacy
  book has narrowed to three parties, with final offers due this
  week, The Insurance Insider has
  learned.
  Enstar, Armour and Compre are understood to have made the final
  round in a process said to have been extremely competitive from the
  start.
  Legacy sources suggested as many as 28 parties had registered
  their interest in the book when it first came to market in the
  first half of this year.
  Acquirers that dropped...
  
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• FedNat and HCI loss picks point to $6bn loss

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Projections from provisional gross loss estimates from listed
  Floridian insurers Federated National and Homeowners Choice (HCI)
  point to a $6.1bn privately insured homeowners' loss from
  Hurricane Irma in the state, analysis from The
  Insurance Insider shows.
  The losses will be heavily reinsured, with FedNat set to retain
  6 percent of its loss gross of reinstatement premiums, and HCI 8
  percent - or 25 percent if its captive is included. These figures
  imply that upwards of 90 percent of the private
  
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• Ed taps carriers for TradEd placing platform

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Broker Ed is asking carriers for up to $200,000 apiece in
  connection with its TradEd placing platform.
  Senior insurance executives notified this publication of the
  request after The Insurance Insider
  reported in July
  that Ed expects TradEd to cut its own front-end costs per slip by
  more than 5 percent next year, with greater savings anticipated
  once the platform is integrated with its back-office systems.
  It is understood that Ed has requested differing contributions
  from a group of fewer than..
  
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• Albertini: investors may demand higher rates to double down

  19-09-2017 14:51
  Reinsurance pricing could still be impacted by Hurricane Irma, even
  though the market avoided more significant losses after the storm
  veered away from Miami, according to Leadenhall Capital Partners
  CEO Luca Albertini.
  Speaking at the Munich Re insurance-linked securities (ILS)
  roundtable in Monte Carlo last week, Albertini said it was still
  too early to know if indicative loss projections would be on the
  mark.
  But even so, as a reinsurance event Irma would be more likely to
  have some impact...
  
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• Insurance firms demand minimum three year transition period after Brexit

  19-09-2017 13:42 via insuranceage.co.uk
  Aon, RSA and Zurich along with more than 100 businesses sign letter to the Brexit negotiators seeking a trade deal and extra time after Britain leaves the EU.
  
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• Blockchain could “eliminate” the need for brokers

  19-09-2017 12:06 via insuranceage.co.uk
  DAC Beachcroft report predicts blockchain impact, another IPT rise and increased focus on corporate governance for brokers.
  
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• Aston Scott and Lark confirm new management structure

  19-09-2017 11:50
  Appointments follow the completion of the merger of the two brokers.
  
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• Opinion: Trump climate

  19-09-2017 11:48
  With the Atlantic season's seventh hurricane bearing down on
  the Caribbean and a new report from atmospheric scientists that
  August was the third-hottest on record, it seems difficult not to
  conclude that the effects of climate change threaten to drive
  catastrophe losses ever higher.
  Hurricane Irma drew some of its historic strength from sea
  surface temperatures nearing 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees
  Celsius) in parts of the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean, far above
  normal even for late August
  
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• Offshore energy insurance market is ‘sinking’, warns IUMI

  19-09-2017 10:59
  The offshore energy insurance market is “sinking”, the chairman of IUMI's Offshore Energy Committee has warned.
  
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• Simply Business rebrands as it eyes global growth

  19-09-2017 10:53
  The digital broker said the new logo reflects the diversity of business trades that it serves.
  
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• UK businesses call for three-year Brexit transitional deal

  19-09-2017 10:20
  Insurers have joined more than 100 businesses in signing a letter to the Brexit negotiators asking for a transition period of up to three years.
  
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• #insagepeople: 18 - 24 September 2017

  19-09-2017 10:15
  Keep up to date with all the latest people moves.
  
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• Navigators names financial lines head for LatAm and Caribbean

  19-09-2017 09:27
  Navigators has recruited a financial and professional lines
  underwriter from Everest Re, as it bolsters its presence in Latin
  America and the Caribbean.
  Charles Juarbe moves to Navigators as head of Latin America and
  the Caribbean for NavPro International, the carrier's
  financial, professional and casualty lines unit, based in
  Miami.
  Juarbe's previous role was as director of the international
  department for financial and professional lines worldwide in the
  primary insurance business of Everest R
  
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• Maria strengthens to Category 5

  19-09-2017 09:27
  Hurricane Maria has strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane and
  ploughed into Dominica, as parts of the Caribbean prepares for the
  region's second devastating storm within two weeks.
  The island of Dominica has suffered "widespread
  devastation", according to a social media post by the
  country's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.
  The roof of Skerrit's own house was torn off by the storm,
  which left an "avalanche of torn away roofs".
  According to data from the US National Hurricane Center, Maria
  made
  
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• The ABI's James Dalton on why the discount rate is not a job done yet

  19-09-2017 07:00
  The recent decision on the discount rate is a victory for insurers but, as James Dalton, director for general insurance policy at the Association of British Insurers, explains, there is still work for the insurance market to do.
  
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• Legal Update: Child abuse claims expected to rise in Scotland

  19-09-2017 07:00
  The limitation for childhood abuse will be lifted next month in Scotland, writes Graeme Watson, partner at Clyde & Co, urging insurers to brace for a surge of claims.
  
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• Tim Byrne Sr departs Orchid MGA

  19-09-2017 03:02
  Former Coastal Agents Alliance president Tim Byrne Sr is leaving
  specialty MGA Orchid Underwriters.
  Byrne joined Vero Beach, Florida-based Orchid a little over two
  years ago when his West Atlantic City, New Jersey-based agency was
  acquired by the MGA to expand its reach into the Northeast.
  Byrne, who acquired a significant stake in Orchid with the deal,
  stayed on as president of Coastal and became an executive vice
  president at Orchid. Recently Byrne led the combined company's
  drive into admitte
  
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• Sirius credit eyed in light of Phoenix deal: AM Best

  19-09-2017 03:02
  Sirius International's credit profile may take a hit if it
  succeeds in acquiring The Phoenix insurance holdings of Israeli
  conglomerate Delek Group, AM Best said today, noting the effects
  the transaction may have on the financial flexibility of Sirius
  parent China Minsheng Investment Group.
  Under an agreement announced last week, the acquisition is expected
  to cost Sirius about 2.51bn shekels ($702mn) for a 52 percent
  interest in the multi-line insurer, one of the largest in Israel.
  The deal has
  
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• Maria's approach spurs drop in Florida insurers

  19-09-2017 01:05
  Florida-focused insurers fell today in New York trading, led by
  Universal, while some publicly traded reinsurers also dropped ahead
  of Hurricane Maria's anticipated blow against Caribbean islands
  laid waste barely a week earlier by Irma.
  Aspen dropped almost 2.8 percent while Maiden fell 3.2 percent as
  Maria threatened the Virgin Islands, Martinique, Barbuda, St Martin
  and Puerto Rico with sustained winds of near 125mph (200kph).
  Maria is expected to strengthen into a Category 4 storm by
  Wednesd
  
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