Insurance news

• China revives role in insurers’ joint ventures

  23-10-2017 22:00 via ft.com
  Ruling party hopes to keep foreign partnerships in line with China’s goals for sector
  
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• The Hartford's Aetna deal may dampen takeout speculation

  23-10-2017 19:34
  The Hartford's $1.45bn deal to buy Aetna's group
  benefits business likely dulled the carrier's allure as a
  takeout target and that may explain a 5 percent drop in the
  company's shares in early New York trading today.
  With a mid-teens multiple, the Aetna deal implies that The
  Hartford, which is also known by its ticker symbol HIG, will get
  "a platform that has superior technology, complementary
  distribution, and ports managed care expertise into the combined
  offering," FBR Capital analyst Randy..
  
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• Swiss Re's Arora named new Axis Re CEO

  23-10-2017 19:34
  Axis Capital has appointed Steve Arora, most recently head of
  casualty reinsurance at Swiss Re, as the new CEO of Axis Re.
  Arora will lead Axis Capital's reinsurance business and
  report to president and CEO Albert Benchimol when he joins the firm
  in January next year.
  Jan Ekberg, current interim CEO of Axis Re, will resume his
  previous role as president and chief underwriting officer of Axis
  Re Europe at the same time.
  Arora will be based in Zurich, but...
  
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• Lloyd's expects $900mn Maria loss

  23-10-2017 19:34
  Lloyd's said today it would take a $900mn loss from Hurricane
  Maria as it revised down its combined loss estimate for hurricanes
  Harvey and Irma.
  Maria pummelled the Caribbean from 18 September to 22 September,
  devastating Dominica and Puerto Rico.
  Industry loss estimates for Maria have varied enormously over
  the past month, with the highest range provided by AIR Worldwide at
  $40bn-$85bn. However, its rival RMS put out an estimate of
  $15bn-$30bn.
  Meanwhile, Lloyd's revised Harvey and Irma loss f
  
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• HIM drives QIC to underwriting loss over first nine months

  23-10-2017 19:34
  Losses from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria (HIM) and the UK
  change to the Ogden rate drove the Qatar Insurance Company (QIC)
  Group to an underwriting loss for the first nine months of 2017, it
  reported today.
  Net profit fell 56.9 percent from the same period of last year
  to $84mn, with the group generating a net underwriting loss of
  $28mn and reporting a 9.3 percentage point deterioration in its
  combined ratio to 108.2 percent.
  In the first nine months...
  
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• Hannover Re dampens German nat cat rating expectations

  23-10-2017 19:34
  Hannover Re has dampened expectations of a widespread and
  significant uptick in catastrophe rates at the 1 January treaty
  renewals, saying prices for German nat cat covers "should at
  least remain stable".
  Providing its commentary as part of this year's Baden-Baden
  meeting, Hannover Re's German market subsidiary E+S Rück
  stressed that rate increases were nonetheless anticipated for
  loss-impacted programmes.
  Looking beyond nat cat cover, the company was broadly positive
  about the wider prospe
  
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• Bains pairs up with Gutiérrez for Zurich MGA launch

  23-10-2017 19:34
  Former Dual CEO Talbir Bains is set to launch a European treaty
  MGA called Horizon with former Sompo Canopius executive Eric
  Gutiérrez, The Insurance Insider can
  reveal.
  Horizon, which will sit under Bains' soon-to-be-launched
  Volante Global, will be operational in time for 1 January,
  according to sources.
  It is understood the MGA will initially be able to offer a
  maximum line size of $50mn on European property treaty
  business.
  Sources said that it would also look to write casualty treaty
  
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• UK retirees using ‘pension freedoms’ for alcohol and gambling

  23-10-2017 18:10 via ft.com
  MPs receive evidence some pensioners are using new liberties to squander savings
  
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• Insurance Cares: 50% of financial consumers could be vulnerable

  23-10-2017 17:40 via insuranceage.co.uk
  Research from the FCA’s Financial Lives report reveals scale of vulnerability as it shows vulnerable customers are less likely to have “any form of insurance”.
  
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• Zurich to market £2bn UK EL book in 2018

  23-10-2017 16:02
  Zurich is considering bringing its mammoth £2.0bn ($2.6bn)
  legacy UK employers' liability (EL) book to market in the first
  half of 2018, The Insurance Insider has
  learned.
  Sources told this publication Zurich is in the very early stages
  of any sort of disposal process, and is yet to appoint an adviser
  on the book.
  The legacy market has known about Zurich's £2bn book
  for more than two years. The insurer moved the portfolio, which
  holds liabilities from 2006 and prior,...
  
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• The Hartford to acquire Aetna's US group life business for $1.5bn

  23-10-2017 16:02
  The Hartford has surprised the market with a $1.45bn move to
  acquire Aetna's US group life and disability business, despite
  widespread speculation that the company had been looking to
  transition to an almost pure-play P&C insurer.
  In October 2016, The Hartford is understood to have come close
  to acquiring Ironshore, butultimately walked away when it was unable to come to an
  agreement on valuations.Ironshore was lateracquired by Liberty Mutual.The Hartford, which this morning beat analysts' e
  
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• The Hartford Q3 pre-tax profits halve after hurricanes

  23-10-2017 16:02
  Pre-tax income at The Hartford more than halved from $528mn in the
  third quarter of 2016 to $256mn in the same period this year,
  driven by a significant amount of P&C losses from hurricanes
  Harvey and Irma.
  In its Q3 earnings statement today, the carrier announced that
  current accident-year catastrophe losses totalled $352mn before
  tax, including a pre-tax hit of $175mn from Hurricane Harvey and a
  $157mn pre-tax bill from Irma.
  The Hartford hadpreviously estimated that third quarter catastro
  
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• Munich Re Syndicate begins writing marine XoL

  23-10-2017 16:02
  Munich Re Syndicate Limited has begun underwriting a London market
  marine excess-of-loss (XoL) treaty portfolio, The
  Insurance Insider can reveal.
  The syndicate commenced underwriting for the book last Friday
  (20 October), and also appointed Sabine Gosch as head of
  reinsurance, reporting to chief underwriting officer Dominick
  Hoare.
  Hoare explained to this publication that the syndicate was able
  to take the decision from an idea, to boardroom and Lloyd's
  approval, to being ready to write busines
  
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• Lloyd's applies for Brexit hub licence

  23-10-2017 16:02
  Lloyd's has filed an application with the Belgian regulator to
  form an insurance company that will allow it to continue to write
  European Economic Area business after Brexit takes effect.
  The application was filed with the Belgian central bank in
  mid-October following lengthy pre-application discussions.
  With the gestation of Brussels-based Lloyd's Insurance
  Company SA broadly progressing as planned, the market should be on
  track to write business via the entity for the January 2019
  renewals.
  As
  
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• JLT Re: reinsurers sitting on $60bn excess capital pre-HIM

  23-10-2017 16:02
  JLT Re has estimated that the reinsurance market was
  over-capitalised by more than $60bn as it entered the 2017
  hurricane season, which has produced some of the most punishing
  catastrophe losses on record.
  The broker said that this put the industry in a much better
  position to face claims from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria than
  it had been when major losses emerged in 2001 and 2005, as these
  years coincided with a liability crisis.
  "This meant that the sector...
  
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• HW Wood expands London office

  23-10-2017 16:02
  Lloyd's broker HW Wood, part of the HWI Group, has hired three
  senior figures from larger market rivals as it looks to grow its UK
  practice.
  Steve Redgwell joins as head of UK retail from Aon Risk
  Solutions, where he was chief broking officer for ARS UK before
  taking the role of managing director of the UK corporate
  business.
  Before joining Aon, Redgwell was managing director of UK broking
  at Heath Lambert.
  Elissa Davidson also joins as head of professional...
  
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• Rubica start-up targets wealthy with personal cyber insurance

  23-10-2017 15:18 via ft.com
  Service offered to individuals not companies promises $1m protection
  
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• THB MGA Unicorn hires D&F heavyweight Chapman

  23-10-2017 13:44
  Neil Chapman, the former head of direct and facultative
  (D&F) at Argo Global, is set to join THB's MGA platform
  Unicorn Underwriters, The Insurance
  Insider can reveal.
  Sources said that Chapman, who resigned from Argo in the summer,
  would join AmWins' London market business next year as the head
  of a new property underwriting division.
  The entry into property is likely to herald a number of
  additional lines of business as THB looks to build out its
  underwriting operations to...
  
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• Munich Re expects global uplift in cat pricing post-HIM

  23-10-2017 13:44
  Munich Re has said there are early indications that the third
  quarter North American hurricanes will lift property catastrophe
  pricing at the 1.1 renewals, with the increase expected to affect
  rates globally as well as in the cat-struck region.
  Management board member Hermann Pohlchristoph made the
  observations during a press conference at the Baden-Baden
  Reinsurance Meeting.
  He noted that the carrier expected total insured losses from
  hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria to "very probably be over
  
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• Marsh hires cyber crime director as adviser

  23-10-2017 13:44
  Marsh has appointed an ex-UK National Crime Agency (NCA) director
  of cyber crime to its London team, as the broker's cyber risk
  consultancy adds its second former intelligence official in London
  in as many years.
  Jamie Saunders will join the broker as a strategic adviser, in a
  newly created role.
  Saunders was director of the National Cyber Crime Unit at the
  NCA, which is focused on policing organised crime.
  He was previously director of international cyber policy at the
  Foreign...
  
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• FCA sees 3.32 million financial services complaints in H1

  23-10-2017 13:03
  The Financial Conduct Authority received 3.32 million complaints about financial services in the first six months of 2017.
  
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• Complaints hit 3.32m for first half of 2017

  23-10-2017 12:38 via insuranceage.co.uk
  PPI still makes up the majority of complaints to financial services firms.
  
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• #Insagepeople: 23 - 29 October 2017

  23-10-2017 11:55 via insuranceage.co.uk
  Keep up to date with all the latest people moves.
  
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• Bollington launches MGA

  23-10-2017 11:28 via insuranceage.co.uk
  Anjuna Underwriting to write motor business through Bollington's wholesale network.
  
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• InsurTech Futures: Nigel Barton’s Wrisk app launches £500,000 crowdfunding round

  23-10-2017 11:27 via insuranceage.co.uk
  The app looks to cover multiple types of insurance in a single plan.
  
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• Bollington launches MGA Anjuna Underwriting

  23-10-2017 11:12
  Bollington Group has launched a managing general agent, Anjuna Underwriting.
  
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• Meet the Broker Apprentices 2017: Luke Abbots-Darbyshire

  23-10-2017 11:02 via insuranceage.co.uk
  The line-up has been decided for the 2017 series of Broker Apprentice. It's time to meet our first participant
  
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• Typhoon Lan makes landfall in Japan

  23-10-2017 10:56
  A strong typhoon has lashed Japan, killing five people and injuring
  up to 90 others, according to local media reports.
  Typhoon Lan, equivalent to a Cat 2 scale Saffir-Simpson
  hurricane wind scale as it passed through the country, disrupted
  travel and caused factories to close.
  The storm made landfall at Shizuoka, 110 miles (175km) south of
  Tokyo, the early hours of Monday morning, local time, the BBC
  reported.
  The storm cut a path northeastwards, passing close to Tokyo,
  before moving...
  
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• RMS recruits Munich Re's Arnoldussen

  23-10-2017 10:56
  Risk modelling agency RMS has hired Ludger Arnoldussen, a former
  Munich Re head of Germany and Asia, to boost its operations in
  Continental Europe.
  Arnoldussen left Munich Re in April after more than a decade at
  the reinsurer, according to details on his LinkedIn profile.
  Steve Hurcom, RMS senior vice president and head of
  international client development, said: "Ludger's
  knowledge of the German insurance market is unrivalled, and his
  insights into the needs of the country's primary insurers...
  
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• Opinion: Thanks for all the cheap retro

  23-10-2017 10:56
  Here's how heavily HIM-whacked collateralised retro players
  hope things will turn out:
  "People have been buying a lot more of my retro the last
  couple of years. They like the fact that it's responsive and
  they love the security that comes with collateralisation.
  "In fact, they now rely on me as a large part of their
  capital stack. They have given me outsized losses, so I will put up
  prices significantly. They will have to wear the increases because
  they...
  
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• InsurTech firm Wrisk launches crowdfunding campaign

  23-10-2017 10:56
  InsurTech company Wrisk is looking to raise £500,000
  ($659,000) in equity via crowdfunding, the company has said.
  The firm has said it is aiming to make buying personal lines
  insurance easier for customers and is targeting underinsured groups
  such as young people.
  Wrisk acts as an MGA, using capacity from Munich Re, Hiscox and
  Qatar Insurance Company (QIC).
  Participants in a £3mn seed funding round that closed
  earlier this year included Oxford Capital, Hiscox, QIC and other
  angel inv
  
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• Industry cannot afford to rely on post-event turn: Nash

  23-10-2017 10:56
  Those (re)insurance industry participants waiting for a widespread
  market turn following major catastrophe losses will not necessarily
  survive in today's fast-paced and rapidly evolving world, the
  president of Guy Carpenter's international division has
  claimed.
  Speaking at the Guy Carpenter Baden-Baden Reinsurance Symposium
  yesterday, James Nash emphasised the importance of innovation in
  achieving success as the speed of change in the sector
  accelerates.
  Nash said that the industry's capital str
  
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• Start-up Wrisk launches £500,000 equity crowdfunding campaign

  23-10-2017 10:29
  Insurtech start-up Wrisk today announced the launch of a £500,000 equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.
  
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• Lloyds Bank's BIll Cooper on the attraction of illiquid investments

  23-10-2017 07:00
  The protracted low interest rates and poor profitability could make illiquid assets increasingly attractive for insurance investors according to Bill Cooper, managing director and global head of insurance at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.
  
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• Legal: Driverless cars, shifting liability

  23-10-2017 07:00
  Autonomous vehicles are making motor insurance liability shift from driver to manufacturer, explains Kennedys partner Rachel Moore.
  
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• Harmer halts Asia expansion at IAG

  23-10-2017 05:00
  Peter Harmer, CEO of Australian insurer IAG, has said the firm's plans to grow in Asia are on hold and that it will focus on Australia and New Zealand.
  
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