Insurance news

• Pen Underwriting secures motor capacity from Zurich

  28-09-2017 23:17
  MGA Pen Underwriting said it has secured up to £150mn
  ($201.1mn) of capacity from Zurich to underwrite hazardous goods
  and tanker transportation cover.
  Pen said the agreement will run for five years and cover hazardous
  goods and environmental motor fleet cover that was previously
  branded as Oamps.
  Features of the cover include legal liability for damage caused by
  spillage or wrongful delivery as a result of driver error or
  omission.
  Adam Shefras, who is managing director of hazardous goods
  
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• House approves opening flood market to industry

  28-09-2017 23:17
  A measure aimed at opening the US flood insurance market to
  greater participation by private insurers passed the House of
  Representatives today with a bipartisan majority voting in
  favour.
  The issue, attached to a bill that extends various Federal
  Aviation Administration and public health programmes for six
  months, now goes to the Senate, where it may prove more difficult
  to pass.
  While the House previously voted unanimously for the so-called
  Ross-Castor bill, in April 2016, Democrats in the cur
  
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• Cat storm seen prompting a turn in reinsurance market

  28-09-2017 23:17
  The prolonged soft market cycle could be set to turn after a series
  of catastrophes that senior executives in the market predict could
  cost the sector up to $150bn.
  "If you look at [Hurricanes] Harvey, Irma and Maria,
  individually none of them is a huge event for the industry but put
  together… the cost estimates are anywhere between $100bn to
  $150bn of insured loss," president and CEO of Scor US
  Jean-Paul Conoscente said.
  "That turns out to be a very...
  
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• RMS puts insured Maria loss at $15bn-$30bn

  28-09-2017 19:15
  RMS has estimated insured losses of $15bn-$30bn from Hurricane
  Maria.
  The loss range, issued today, is well below the shock
  $40bn-$85bn estimate released by rival AIR Worldwide earlier this
  week.
  The RMS figure includes losses from wind, storm surge and inland
  flood damage across the Caribbean, with Puerto Rico and Dominica
  suffering the most widespread destruction.
  The estimate includes property damage and business interruption
  losses to residential, commercial and industrial lines of business,
  
  Read more

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• Maiden estimates $8mn-$31mn Harvey and Irma losses

  28-09-2017 19:15
  Maiden Holdings has estimated that its net losses from Harvey
  and Irma will be between $8mn and $31mn, it announced today.
  Hurricane Harvey was expected to generate net claims of between
  $6mn and $18mn, while Hurricane Irma was pegged between $2mn and
  $13mn. The maximum $31mn loss tally represents all Maiden's
  third quarter catastrophe exposure, it said.
  The Bermuda-based company added that it expected no third
  quarter earthquake losses and no impact from Hurricane Maria.
  Art Raschbaum, presiden
  
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• Harvey and Irma exhaust $5.8bn NFIP borrowing capacity

  28-09-2017 19:15
  Claims from Hurricane Harvey have exhausted the National Flood
  Insurance Program's $5.8bn borrowing authority, as anticipated
  by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or Fema.
  But so far, only about $925mn in Harvey-related claims have been
  paid by the NFIP, as the programme is known, on more than 88,000
  claims received, almost all from Texas, Politico reported
  today, citing Fema.
  Over 25,000 claims have been submitted to the NFIP related to
  Hurricane Irma, Politico said. Irma claims have com
  
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• Lloyd’s faces $4.5bn of losses from hurricanes Harvey and Irma

  28-09-2017 17:10
  Insurer already paying out on claims but total cost could take years to calculate
  
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• Lloyd's syndicates can withstand Q3 cat losses: Parry

  28-09-2017 16:26
  Lloyd's does not currently expect any syndicates to fail as
  a result of third quarter catastrophe events, director of finance
  John Parry said today.
  Lloyd's has put a suspension on the release of first-half
  profits until it can assess the full impact of this most recent
  string of events, Parry said during an H1 results press
  conference.
  "There are some syndicates where [the loss events] will
  have clearly eroded [profits from] their first half of the
  year," the executive said....
  
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• Intact closes OneBeacon purchase from White Mountains

  28-09-2017 16:26
  Canada's biggest property and casualty insurer, Intact
  Financial, has closed its $1.7bn takeover of OneBeacon, the US
  specialty carrier previously majority owned by financial services
  holding company White Mountains.
  OneBeacon CEO Mike Miller will become president of US and
  specialty solutions at Intact and lead the US and commercial
  insurance business of Intact.
  Intact is aiming to grow the specialty lines businesses in the
  US, targeting a combined ratio "in the low 90s" over the
  next two to th
  
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• Digital and Insurtech Awards 2017: Shortlist revealed

  28-09-2017 15:59
  The shortlist has been announced for the Digital and Insurtech Awards 2017.
  
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• Lockton opens office in Aberdeen

  28-09-2017 15:55
  Broker aims to grow its regional footprint with third branch in Scotland.
  
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• Pen Underwriting signs £150m capacity deal with Zurich

  28-09-2017 13:49
  Exclusive: Pen Underwriting has signed a £150m long-term capacity deal with Zurich in the area of hazardous and tanker transportation.
  
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• Property market braced for Merck cyber-attack claim

  28-09-2017 13:38
  US pharmaceutical giant Merck is preparing to file a claim which
  the market fears could be as high as $1bn-$1.5bn owing to losses
  resulting from the NotPetya cyber-attack, The Insurance
  Insider can reveal.
  Given that the loss stems almost entirely from business
  interruption (BI), the quantum at this early stage is highly
  uncertain, but a range of market sources pointed to estimates in
  the above range.
  It is understood the firm is trying to recoup some of the BI
  losses...
  
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• Opinion: P&C Pollyannas

  28-09-2017 13:38
  Investors in P&C stocks are displaying levels of optimism
  last seen during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, when fictional
  orphan Pollyanna spread good cheer and positivity among the
  citizens of Vermont.
  Since Harvey struck Texas on 25 August, before bringing flooding
  to Houston and elsewhere, there have been isolated routs as North
  Atlantic hurricanes gyrated. But no sustained sell-off has
  afflicted the sector.
  On Tuesday (26 September) P&C investors were sanguine, even
  after AIR World
  
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• Eiopa chairman reiterates 90% cession limit

  28-09-2017 13:38
  The head of the pan-EU insurance regulator has warned carriers
  setting up a post-Brexit presence in the trade bloc not to reinsure
  everything back to London.
  Gabriel Bernardino, chairman of the Frankfurt-based European
  Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa), told a
  Reuters conference yesterday that carriers should plan to retain at
  least 10 percent of business in the country they have selected for
  their EU base.
  "We see 10 percent of business being retained as a good
  referential,"
  
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• Cavanagh links up with Milligan's Beat Capital

  28-09-2017 13:38
  Outgoing Willis Re CEO John Cavanagh has invested in Tom
  Milligan's venture capital (VC) firm Beat Capital and next year
  will use it as a vehicle to sponsor MGA start-ups, The
  Insurance Insider can reveal.
  Cavanagh is set to join an all-star board at Beat that includes
  ex-Ariel CEO Milligan, Neon CEO Martin Reith, American Financial
  Group (AFG) CFO Jeff Consolino and AmWins president Skip
  Cooper.
  The Insurance Insider had previously
  reported that Cavanagh wasworking to establish a technology-ena
  
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• Marsh restructures networks for brokers

  28-09-2017 12:45
  Duncan Carter leads the new D&P division as Bluefin Network’s David Hopwood is promoted to become head of Marsh Networks.
  
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• McVitie’s factory ‘resilient’ should future storms hit: RSA

  28-09-2017 11:32
  RSA has worked with McVitie’s to install flood defences in its Carlisle factory following the devastation caused by Storm Desmond, to protect against any future flooding in the area.
  
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• Perils lifts Debbie loss estimate to $1.3bn

  28-09-2017 11:03
  Catastrophe loss data specialist Perils has disclosed its third
  loss estimate for Tropical Cyclone Debbie, pegging the insured loss
  at A$1.7bn ($1.3bn).
  The estimate, which relates to the cyclone that decimated parts
  of Queensland and New South Wales from 28 March until early April,
  is just over a fifth higher than the previous A$1.4bn estimate.
  This is the first time that a market loss footprint from an
  Australian cat event, based on collected insurance loss data, has
  been available at...
  
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• Opinion: P&C Polyannas

  28-09-2017 11:03
  Investors in P&C stocks are displaying levels of optimism last
  seen during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, when fictional orphan
  Pollyanna spread good cheer and positivity among the citizens of
  Vermont.
  Since Harvey struck Texas on 25 August, before bringing flooding
  to Houston and elsewhere, there have been isolated routs as North
  Atlantic hurricanes gyrated. But no sustained sell-off has
  afflicted the sector.
  On Tuesday (26 September) P&C investors were sanguine, even
  after AIR World
  
  Read more

• Lloyd's sees $4.5bn impact from Harvey and Irma

  28-09-2017 11:03
  Lloyd's of London has estimated that net claims from
  Hurricanes Harvey and Irma could reach $4.5bn.
  The warning came as Lloyd's pre-tax profitsfell by almost 17 percent to £1.22bn ($1.64bn) for the
  first half of the year, despite it being a benign period for
  catastrophe events and large losses.Lloyd's said in its interim report: "Windstorms Harvey
  and Irma made landfall on the US and the Caribbean towards the end
  of August and early September 2017 respectively.
  "These events...
  
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• Lloyd's first half profits fall 17%

  28-09-2017 11:03
  Lloyd's reported a near-17 percent decrease in underlying
  profits for the first six months of the year, taking the total to
  £1.22bn ($1.64bn), after an improved underwriting result
  failed to offset continued market pressures.
  Lloyd's reported a 78 percent improvement in the underwriting
  result for the first six months of 2017, taking the total to
  £366mn. Lloyd's investment return remained broadly stable
  at 1.5 percent.
  The annualised return on capital was 2.8 points worse at 8.9
  perc
  
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• Generali unveils plan to restructure German operations

  28-09-2017 11:03
  Italian insurance giant Generali has announced a restructuring
  of its German business which will see its 10 product groupings
  consolidated into one and its life business Generali Leben put into
  run-off.
  Generali Deutschland, Germany's second-largest primary
  insurance group, said it will bring all of its product
  "factories" under one platform, consolidating all
  technical and product capabilities for P&C, health and
  life.
  The carrier has also entered into an exclusive distribution
  agreement wi
  
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• “Challenging conditions” cause Lloyd’s profit slip

  28-09-2017 10:43
  Pre-tax profits have fallen to £1.22bn for the first six months of 2017 compared to £1.46bn last year.
  
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• Applied Net 2017: CEO Reid French prioritising UK growth over profit

  28-09-2017 10:01
  Boss open to idea of buying again in the UK.
  
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• The Blog Spot: Dive in to diversity

  28-09-2017 09:45
  As the Dive In Festival takes place for the third time Siân Barton outlines the benefits of a diverse workforce.
  
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• Analysis: Connected risks require joined-up thinking

  28-09-2017 07:00
  Faced with events that cascade from one risk class to others, insurers need to review their underwriting strategies.
  
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• Analysis: Broker claims research

  28-09-2017 07:00
  Earlier this year, brokers were invited to score insurers on their claims handling, grading different classes of business on their performance from excellent to poor. Jonathan Swift examines the results
  
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• Program start-up Trisura Specialty gets AM Best rating

  28-09-2017 02:39
  Hybrid US program fronting carrier Trisura Specialty is ready to
  begin underwriting after securing its A- financial strength rating
  from AM Best.
  In a statement, the agency said it had also granted an a- credit
  rating to the start-up as it highlighted adequate risk-adjusted
  capitalization, strong underwriting controls, a targeted business
  plan, and capital access through its publicly-traded Canadian
  parent Trisura Group.
  As revealed by The Insurance Insider
  early last month, Trisura was preparin
  
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• Workers comp premiums hit record high in 2016

  28-09-2017 00:16
  Workers compensation premiums hit a record high of $58.5bn last
  year despite ongoing pricing pressure, according to a new study
  from AM Best.
  The rating agency pointed to an inverse correlation between the
  unemployment rate and workers compensation premiums as a reason for
  the growth.
  "Since rates decreased on average from 2015 to 2016, the
  growth in premiums can be attributed primarily to an increase in
  payroll base," AM Best explained.
  However that trend may be set to come to...
  
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• Lombardi resurfaces at fast-growing NFP

  28-09-2017 00:16
  Former Aon executive Henry Lombardi has re-emerged at NFP as an
  executive vice president in the expansive broker and
  consultant's P&C division.
  Lombardi was most recently global chief broking officer and
  executive vice president in Aon's construction and
  infrastructure practice.
  He left the role earlier this year as part of a headcount
  reduction across Aon's management ranks in a move revealed by The Insurance
  Insider.
  At the time it was suggested that the executive had taken
  retirement, eig
  
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• Chubb says Harvey-Irma losses up to $1.6bn

  28-09-2017 00:16
  Global (re)insurer Chubb has put out preliminary loss estimates
  for third quarter hurricanes Harvey and Irma with a combined upper
  range of $1.6bn before tax.
  The Zurich-headquartered carrier said its insured losses from
  Hurricane Harvey are currently estimated at $650mn pre-tax, or
  $520mn after tax.
  Meanwhile, losses for Hurricane Irma are expected to come in
  higher, with a range of $800mn to $950mn before tax, or $640mn to
  $760mn after tax.
  The estimates are net of reinsurance and include rein
  
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