Insurance news

• Watchdog to meerkats: comparison is not the same as competition

  26-09-2017 22:09
  It seems that supermarkets can compete on money — but Moneysupermarkets cannot
  
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• Lloyd's approves Coverys syndicate

  26-09-2017 18:57
  US medical malpractice specialist Coverys has gained
  in-principle approval from Lloyd's to establish a full
  syndicate managed by R&Q Managing Agency.
  Coverys will be the sole capital provider for Syndicate 1975,
  which will write both med-mal insurance and healthcare reinsurance,
  the firm said in a statement today.
  Syndicate 1975 is expected to begin underwriting on 1 January
  2018, subject to completion of the final approval stage of the
  Lloyd's application process.
  In June,Coverys struck a d
  
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• Harvey and Irma to dent earnings, not capital: Scor

  26-09-2017 18:57
  Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are expected to be "an earnings
  event rather than a capital event" for Scor, the firm said in
  a statement today.
  Retrocession cover put in place by the group will protect it as
  expected, with "ample unused capacity and no breach of the
  upper limits", Scor said.
  "It will remain effective to protect the group from the
  occurrence of further events in 2017," the firm added.The likelihood of 2017 losses triggering Scor's contingent
  capital facility,...
  
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• AmWins, Integro, RFIB vie for Tysers

  26-09-2017 18:57
  AmWins and Integro are competing to acquire Tysers as a deal with
  one-time frontrunner RFIB remains elusive after months of talks,
  The Insurance Insider understands.
  Sources said that the companies had submitted offers and these
  were being considered by the board of Hawkes Bay Holdings -
  Tysers' top holding company. Valuations were thought to be in
  excess of £100mn ($135mn).
  RFIB, which is backed by San Francisco-based private equity
  house Calera Capital, had long been thought to be in pol
  
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• UPC figure points to $5bn Irma homeowners' loss

  26-09-2017 16:25
  The $300mn-$600mn gross loss from US storms disclosed by UPC
  Insurance suggests that the privately insured homeowners' loss
  from Hurricane Irma could be less than $5bn, analysis from
  The Insurance Insider shows.
  The disclosure included losses from both Harvey and Irma. But
  even if all of these losses had come from Irma, grossing up the
  carrier's market share in the counties most impacted by the
  Florida storm points to an industry loss of only $5.0bn.
  This is based upon the...
  
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• Setting US-EU accord rules could take 5 years

  26-09-2017 16:25
  Certain benefits from the covered agreement signed on 22
  September by US and EU officials may be a long time in coming, as
  full implementation may take five years.
  And that includes the removal of collateral requirements imposed
  by US states that have forced European reinsurers to lock up about
  $40bn in capital.
  Some aspects of the agreement took effect on the signing,
  leaving industry leaders like TransRe CEO Mike Sapnar
  optimistic.
  "Now that the agreement is signed the real...
  
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• Opinion: CRC facility

  26-09-2017 16:25
  There is one key factor that will continue to drive
  insurance-linked securities (ILS) managers' expansion in the
  primary insurance market: the much bigger size of the opportunity
  compared to the more niche reinsurance industry.
  The collateralised reinsurance space has begun the reach the
  limits of its potential to expand in the catastrophe sector,
  forcing managers to get creative in search of continued growth.
  That said, going into the insurance business is no easy win
  either - this CRC facility
  
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• Nephila invests in Boost InsurTech platform

  26-09-2017 16:25
  Nephila and its fronting partner State National will offer capacity
  to a new InsurTech platform that aims to help speed up the launch
  process for start-ups.
  The Boost Insurance platform will offer access to regulated
  insurance paper and risk capacity through Nephila, State National
  and other leaders in the industry, according to a statement.
  Boost Insurance said it had raised $3mn in a fundraising round
  led by Norwest Venture Partners. Other investors included IA
  Capital Group and Greycroft Part
  
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• NatGen sees Harvey loss of up to $30mn

  26-09-2017 16:25
  US personal lines insurer National General said it expects to
  book $25mn to $30mn in Harvey-related losses in the third quarter
  after recoveries from quota share reinsurance arrangements.
  The New York-based carrier, which is led by CEO Barry Karfunkel,
  put the after-tax hit at $17.5mn to $21mn.
  National General said: "The range in our estimate is driven
  by uncertainty surrounding the potential for additional claim
  information to emerge."
  The carrier writes home, auto and lender services coverage
  
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• Market concurs with Mexican insured quake loss forecasts

  26-09-2017 16:25
  Low penetration rates, improved building regulations and the
  location of the epicentres mean that insured losses from
  Mexico's recent earthquakes are expected to remain relatively
  low, according to market sources.
  Over the past week, modelling agencies AIR and RMS have released
  their initial loss estimates for the two earthquakes that struck
  Mexico earlier this month.
  AIR said insured losses from the first
  temblor, which struck off the coast of the state of Chiapas on 7
  September, would be betwe
  
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• London must address 'fear of failure' to innovate

  26-09-2017 16:25
  The London market must be ready to fail if it is to become an
  industry that is innovative, efficient and addresses the evolving
  demands of customers, panellists said during the London InsurTech
  conference last week.
  During a panel on innovation, panellists agreed that the
  acceptance of failure was the biggest cultural challenge London
  faced to bring its products and systems into a new digitally
  focused era.
  Graham Elliott, CEO of AIG-backed Azur, said the market needed
  "to be brave&quot...
  
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• Liberty fronts CRC alternative capital property facility

  26-09-2017 16:25
  US wholesale giant CRC Group has launched an alternative
  capital-backed quota share property facility fronted by Liberty
  International Underwriters (LIU), The Insurance
  Insider can reveal.
  According to sources, LIU will provide its AM Best A-rated paper
  to a follow-form facility dubbed QSP+, as well as putting up a
  share of its capacity.
  A trio of unspecified alternative capital players will then fill
  out the facility with their capacity, in the latest move by
  insurance-linked securities funds t
  
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• KKR sells out of Alliant as broker valued at $4.5bn

  26-09-2017 16:25
  Private equity house KKR has sold its remaining stake to Alliant
  back to the company in a deal that valued the broker at around
  $4.5bn, The Insurance Insider
  understands.
  Sources said that KKR will raise around $350mn from the sale of
  its holding, implying that the private equity house's stake had
  fallen into the single digits from the 65 percent it once held.
  It is understood that the buyback was funded by a combination of
  cash-on-hand and a new debt...
  
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• Investors show interest in InsurTech-enabled MGAs

  26-09-2017 16:25
  Investors in InsurTech are generally more comfortable with the
  MGA model for underwriting start-ups rather than balance sheet
  businesses, according to some leading venture capital firms.
  A panel of InsurTech investors at the London InsurTech
  conference last week discussed their preference for start-ups to
  partner with incumbent (re)insurers in setting up their
  businesses.
  An InsurTech start-up which intends to have its own insurance
  licence from inception "is not a risk we like to take",
  said Ro
  
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• ILS fund managers count cost of hurricanes

  26-09-2017 16:25
  Insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund manager Markel Catco has
  warned that combined losses from hurricanes Harvey and Irma have
  the potential to fully erode its annual returns "or more"
  for 2017.
  The manager has reserved for a 6 percent reduction in net asset
  value following Harvey, but has not factored in Irma claims
  yet.
  It said it was monitoring Harvey and would reassess whether it
  needed to alter the reserve for this event in its September
  month-end valuation.
  Markel Catco had...
  
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• HIM raises prospect of worst ever cat year

  26-09-2017 16:25
  AIR Worldwide's $40bn-$85bn insured loss range for Hurricane
  Maria provides further evidence - as if it were needed - of the
  capacity of the 2017 hurricane season to surprise.
  The eye-watering estimate will leave (re)insurers scrambling to
  get a grasp of their exposures in time to put up their own loss
  forecasts for the upcoming third quarter reporting season.
  It may also raise questions over the financial stability of
  smaller local or regional carriers in the Caribbean after a second...
  
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• Focus on coastal MGAs as carriers count cat losses

  26-09-2017 16:25
  As carriers and their reinsurers continue to piece together the
  claims picture from Harvey and Irma, anecdotal evidence is
  beginning to point to significant losses emerging from the larger
  coastal MGAs.
  The Insurance Insider has already
  reported on the impact of the two
  hurricanes on binders that bring hundreds of millions of
  dollars of premium into London.
  But after Harvey struck Texas and Irma slammed into Florida,
  this publication has put together a list of the more significant
  MGAs that...
  
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• Everest Re cat bonds exposed to Maria losses

  26-09-2017 16:25
  The Kilimanjaro Re series of cat bonds sponsored by Everest Re
  are among a dozen insurance-linked securities (ILS) deals exposed
  to losses incurred by Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico as a
  Category 4 hurricane on 20 September.
  ILS investors said that the relatively low level of insurance
  coverage in the Caribbean compared to the US market meant that the
  cat bond sector was unlikely to be significantly affected by the
  storms.
  But as Caribbean claims could add to US...
  
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• Esser closes AFL deal and targets wholesale gap

  26-09-2017 16:25
  Toby Esser's start-up Next Generation has closed its
  acquisition of a majority stake in London-based wholesale and
  retail broker AFL.
  Esser will become executive chairman of AFL, with current
  chairman Alec Finch stepping down. Bob Finch remains in place as
  CEO.
  The deal, which seals the former Cooper Gay CEO's return to
  the market, was first trailed by this
  publication .In an interview with The Insurance
  Insider following completion of the deal, Esser
  explained that both he and AFL...
  
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• Equifax breach likely to exhaust $150mn cyber tower

  26-09-2017 16:25
  US credit bureau Equifax may burn through its entire cyber
  insurance limit following a September data breach that affected 148
  million customers.
  Three separate sources told The Insurance
  Insider the limit on the Beazley-led tower was
  $150mn.
  It has been further suggested that Beazley would take on the
  first $15mn of losses over a $5mn retention.
  Based on the standard rule-of-thumb calculation whereby it costs
  $1 to notify each individual of a data breach, Equifax would
  require almost all of...
  
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• EC regulatory reforms to 'level Solvency II playing field'

  26-09-2017 16:25
  UK carriers looking to establish EU subsidiaries for Brexit face
  less room for manoeuvre after the European Commission (EC) issued
  plans to bolster the bloc's financial regulators at the expense
  of national watchdogs.
  The EC's proposals would give the European Insurance and
  Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa) greater powers to promote
  "convergence" among national insurance regulators in the
  way they supervise internal models under Solvency II.
  Eiopa and the other so-called European Superviso
  
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• CRC crunches panel for $1bn London wholesale book

  26-09-2017 16:25
  US wholesale broking giant CRC Insurance Services has cut its
  panel of London market wholesale intermediaries to a small handful,
  The Insurance Insider understands.
  Sources said that Besso, Ed, Miller and RK Harrison have been
  chosen as preferred partners. One source suggested a fifth broker
  may have also made the cut.
  CRC, which puts around $1bn of premium into the London market,
  had been trading with 15-20 London wholesale brokers, according to
  sources.
  The decision to scale back its panel...
  
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• Axa market leader for Mexico quake coverage

  26-09-2017 16:25
  Axa Seguros is the largest writer of earthquake cover in Mexico,
  followed by Seguros Banorte Generali and Seguros Inbursa, according
  to data from AM Best.
  The data shows 35 carriers wrote quake business in Mexico in
  2016, with total gross written premiums of 16.8bn pesos as of
  year-end. This was slightly down on the 17.4bn pesos recorded at
  the end of 2015, driven in part by the devaluation of the Mexican
  peso.
  Other international carriers among the top 20
  quake...
  
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• Comparethemarket.com investigated over alleged deals with insurers

  26-09-2017 16:19
  Price comparison firm faces claims it has agreements with insurers preventing them from making cheaper offers on other sitesComparethemarket.com is being investigated by the competition regulator over suspicions that the price comparison website may have done deals with insurers that forced up some customers’ premiums.Following a year-long investigation into the whole price comparison industry, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Tuesday it was investigating one price compa
  
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• Compare the Market faces CMA investigation

  26-09-2017 15:19
  Regulator to investigate relationships between providers and Compare the Market following review of digital comparison tools.
  
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• Compare the Market to face probe over insurer contracts

  26-09-2017 13:27
  Compare the Market has been named as the company at the centre of a legal probe by the competition watchdog.
  
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• Opinion: All change for growth

  26-09-2017 12:53
  The departure of Rob Schimek from AIG announced inyesterday's reorganisation will not have come as a surprise
  to all, with the move mooted for some time in senior industry
  circles.
  Of greater interest, though, is what the exit says about Brian
  Duperreault and his blueprint for turning the insurance giant
  around.
  Schimek, a former Deloitte partner, joined AIG on the finance
  side of the business in 2005, before moving over from CFO of its
  global P&C business in 2012...
  
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• Maria industry loss put at $40bn-$85bn by AIR Worldwide

  26-09-2017 12:53
  Hurricane Maria left as much as $85bn in insured losses after
  devastating Caribbean islands from Dominica to Puerto Rico, where
  most of the worst damage occurred, AIR Worldwide said today.
  The catastrophe modeller put the low end of the industry insured
  loss at $40bn.
  In Puerto Rico, which accounted for about 85 percent of the
  loss, AIR summed up some of the worst damage - at least one dam in
  imminent danger of collapse, forcing some 70,000 residents
  downstream to...
  
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• Lloyd's lures top cat modeller from Scor

  26-09-2017 12:53
  Lloyd's named Scor's Kirsten Mitchell-Wallace as head of
  risk aggregation.
  Mitchell-Wallace will start before year-end and report to Jon
  Hancock, Lloyd's performance director. Her remit will involve
  leading exposure management, reinsurance and catastrophe
  modelling.
  The current head of risk aggregation David Clouston will step
  down at the end of the year and will leave Lloyd's to set up
  his own business, the Corporation said.
  Mitchell-Wallace currently works at the French reinsurance giant
  Scor
  
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• Helios acquires Inversanda LLV

  26-09-2017 12:53
  Helios Underwriting has acquired Inversanda, a limited liability
  member (LLV) of Lloyd's, for a cash consideration of
  £235,000 ($317,299).
  The acquisition price represented a 24.3 percent discount to the
  independent valuation of £310,235 placed on Inversanda by
  Humphrey's.
  Inversanda is forecast to make a return on capacity of 8.28
  percent at the midpoint for the 2015 year of account.
  For the 2016 year of account, it is forecast to make a 1.58
  percent return on capacity at the midpoi
  
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• PIB buys specialist charity MGA aQmen Holdings

  26-09-2017 12:45
  Deal is broker's eleventh in 17 months.
  
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• Insurers plan greater exposure to private assets

  26-09-2017 12:31
  Low bond yields heighten appeal of private equity, real estate and infrastructure
  
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• Dive In: 71% of insurance workers want culture change

  26-09-2017 12:24
  Survey reveals insurance staff believe culture within firms needs to change as diversity festival Dive In kicks off.
  
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• Axa offers fresh hotels, hospitality and leisure product

  26-09-2017 12:24
  The policy is part of Axa’s revamped Vantage mid market proposition.
  
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• Maria industry losses could total $85bn

  26-09-2017 11:43
  Industry insured losses for Hurricane Maria in the Caribbean will be between $40bn and $85bn, according to AIR Worldwide.
  
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• The AA hires Simon Breakwell as CEO as profits rise by 35%

  26-09-2017 11:17
  Firm's trading Ebitda and revenue remained relatively flat as former Uber boss takes the helm.
  
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• AA shares skid after it puts the brakes on IT upgrade

  26-09-2017 11:11
  Breakdown cover business warns on profits after summer of turmoil
  
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• UK competition watchdog opens probe into Compare the Market

  26-09-2017 11:03
  CMA investigates agreement under which insurers only offer top deal to one website
  
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• UK competition watchdog opens inquiry into Compare the Market

  26-09-2017 11:03
  Investigation focuses on agreement among some websites to obtain the best deals
  
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• CMA to investigate aggregator over “strong concerns” on insurer relationships

  26-09-2017 10:57
  However, investigation did not find “harmful hollowing out” of products because of an undue focus on price.
  
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• Competition watchdog opens legal investigation into comparison site

  26-09-2017 10:47
  The competitions watchdog has opened a legal investigation into how one price comparison site has set up its contracts with insurers.
  
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• RSA cat losses 'well below' reinsurance limit

  26-09-2017 09:57
  RSA said losses from recent natural catastrophes in the US,
  Caribbean and Mexico are currently "well below" its
  reinsurance limit.
  The UK-listed insurer said cat losses would impact September
  results in the marine and international portfolios, but are at a
  level currently covered by its reinsurance programme.
  The firm also noted that the final position "will take some
  weeks to emerge".
  RSA also said that underlying results in the UK segment
  "continue to reflect the challenges visible in H1, agai
  
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• Novae to delist next week

  26-09-2017 09:57
  Novae's life as a publicly traded company is due to end next
  Monday, when Axis' £477.6mn ($644.8mn)
  scheme-of-arrangement takeover of the UK carrier is scheduled to
  become effective.
  In a takeover timetable released today, Axis said the court
  hearing to sanction the scheme will be held on Thursday.
  The acquirer is still awaiting deal approval from the European
  Commission (EC), which is expected by 6 October and no later than
  18 October.
  The EC has, however, cleared Axis to acquire...
  
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• ERN pegs Mexican quake loss at $4.8bn

  26-09-2017 09:57
  Mexican seismic engineering firm Evaluacion de Riesgos Naturales
  (ERN International) has estimated industry losses from the Puebla
  earthquake on 19 September at $4.8bn.
  The firm said the states of Puebla and Morelos sustained the
  highest losses.The ERN International estimate is higher than those put out by
  RMS and AIR.
  RMS estimated insured losses from the quakewill not surpass $1.2bn , due to low insurance penetration in
  the country.RMS expects economic losses from the earthquake to be between.
  
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• Canadian floods generate $100mn insured loss

  26-09-2017 09:57
  Significant flooding in Windsor, Canada, during August caused
  insured losses of more than C$124mn ($100mn), according to the
  Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC).
  The IBC cited loss estimates generated by Catastrophe Indices
  and Quantification Inc (CatIQ).
  On 28 and 29 August, a slow-moving area of low pressure produced
  significant rainfall over areas of southwestern Ontario, bringing
  as much as 290mm of rain in some areas, according to the IBC.
  This caused major flooding to Windsor, Tecumseh, and o
  
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• Applied Net 2017: Cyber security in the digital age and how to get it right

  26-09-2017 09:47
  Brokers urged to create office environments where cyber security is everybody’s business.
  
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• Applied Net 2017: Consolidation notes from the USA

  26-09-2017 09:44
  Takeovers continue apace in the North American market but selling up is not always the best financial option.
  
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• Peter Hubbard to chair Co-op insurance board

  26-09-2017 09:39
  Hubbard was formerly at UK General and was CEO of Axa.
  
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• Uber boss Breakwell takes the wheel at AA

  26-09-2017 09:36
  Former Uber boss Simon Breakwell has been appointed CEO of the AA, as the company announced flat H1 results.
  
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• ADT burglar alarm stayed silent while I was being robbed

  26-09-2017 08:00
  The thief passed the sensor but it apparently was on a ‘pet sensitive’ settingI was burgled recently and lost my laptop and PlayStation. My home alarm was on and in working condition (confirmed by ADT), but it didn’t activate despite burglars passing a sensor. I have since found out that this was because my alarm sensor was set up to be “pet sensitive”. I have no pets and ticked this on the contract. We did a test and my 6ft husband could move past the sensor uprigh
  
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