Insurance news

• Canopius Re downgraded by AM Best following buyout

  22-03-2018 23:09
  Canopius Re's financial strength rating has been cut one
  notch to A- by AM Best following the private equity-backed $952mn
  acquisition of the reinsurer's parent from Tokyo-based Sompo
  Holdings.
  The group's US primary carrier, Canopius US Insurance,
  retained its A- financial strength rating as AM Best also said
  today that it had removed both operating units from its "under
  review" list.
  The ratings of both units reflect their strategic importance to
  parent company Canopius AG as well its "strong"
  
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• Validus backs Eagle Ocean facility

  22-03-2018 19:06
  Validus Specialty Underwriting has announced a tie-up with
  marine facility Eagle Ocean America.
  The carrier will provide capacity for the protection and
  indemnity (P&I) facility, which provides cover for fleets
  operating in US inland and coastal waters.
  Eagle Ocean America will offer fixed-cost P&I cover up to
  $2mn and hull and machinery cover to the value of $10mn.
  The facility is managed by Eagle Ocean Agencies, which writes
  fixed premium P&I business and hull coverages on inland,
  
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• USI to crunch down London trading partnerships

  22-03-2018 19:06
  US retail broker USI is preparing to reduce the number of London
  wholesale brokers it trades with as the consolidation trend
  intensifies, The Insurance Insider
  understands.
  Sources said USI plans to place all of its London wholesale
  business through a small panel of brokers, in further evidence EC3
  is becoming more challenging for smaller players.
  The exercise, which is in its early stages, will produce winners
  and losers in the market as the hundreds of millions of premium
  channelled into...
  
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• UK to hand Pool Re non-damage BI remit

  22-03-2018 19:06
  The UK government plans to expand the scope of Pool Re to allow
  the scheme to provide reinsurance for non-damage business
  interruption (BI) caused by terrorism.
  Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister John Glen
  told parliament that the government would amend the 1993
  legislation which created the pool "as soon as parliamentary
  time allows".
  The initiative comes on the first anniversary of the attack on
  Westminster Bridge in which Khalid Masood drove a hire car into
  pedestrians, kill
  
  Read more

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• Parker Norfolk recruits Besso chief risk officer

  22-03-2018 19:06
  Private equity-backed London market broker Parker Norfolk and
  Partners has lured Peter Dalton, the chief risk officer of Besso,
  to its team, The Insurance Insider
  understands.
  Dalton will become the chief risk and operations officer at
  Parker Norfolk.
  The Lloyd's licensed intermediary was previously a unit of
  Miles Smith but was acquired by Alan Wallace and Tracey Anderson
  last year.
  Dalton joined Besso in 2014 from Cooper Gay, where he was head
  of risk management and strategic head of claims...
  
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• Opinion: Lloyd's long hard look

  22-03-2018 19:06
  The Lloyd's market needs to take a long hard look at
  itself.
  Not because it made a loss in a year of heavy cat activity. That
  is the game Lloyd's is in. The market trades in volatility and
  if the wind blows and the wildfires rage, it will fall into the
  red.
  The reason it needs to look very hard at itself is because even
  if 2017 had been a normal cat year it would have lost money
  underwriting.
  The...
  
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• Mudslide threat spurs Los Angeles-area evacuations

  22-03-2018 19:06
  Flood and mudslide warnings from weather watchers have put
  people on alert in Los Angeles as wind and heavy rain pummel the
  region.
  At midday local time, the National Weather Service issued a
  flood advisory for Ventura County, northwest of the city, in a
  mountainous area scorched by widespread wildfires in December.
  Mudslides triggered by torrential rain in January damaged or
  destroyed hundreds of homes and killed at least 21 people.
  "Flash flooding and mud and debris flows are likely...
  
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• MS Amlin targets 10% cut in staff costs after outsized loss

  22-03-2018 19:06
  MS Amlin is preparing to reduce the number of permanent roles in
  the organisation by around 140 as part of a programme of changes
  designed to turn the business around after it ran up heavy 2017
  losses, The Insurance Insider can
  reveal.
  The 10 percent reduction in overall staff costs is likely to see
  the headcount at the (re)insurer - which employs around 2,200
  globally, including 1,350 in the UK - scaled back by around 6
  percent.
  Sources told this...
  
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• Masojada urges PPL adoption as chairman role confirmed

  22-03-2018 19:06
  Hiscox CEO Bronek Masojada has been named chair of Placing
  Platform Limited (PPL), in a movefirst reported by The Insurance
  Insider last month.
  Masojada will take over from retiring Aon UK chief operating
  officer David Ledger. Confirmation of his appointment comes a day
  after Lloyd's agreed a system of rewards and sanctions to
  encourage PPL take-up.
  In a statement today, Masojada said he wants PPL be used to
  place four-fifths of all London market risks.
  "Our ambition is now...
  
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• M&A in US brokerage market to continue in 2018

  22-03-2018 19:06
  M&A activity among US insurance brokers will remain brisk in
  2018, credit ratings agency Moody's has said.
  The ratings agency said it expected purchase multiples to remain
  high in the brokerage sector, and that private equity firms and
  management at private brokers would access "extensive
  debt" to fund acquisitions.
  Private equity firms accounted for the majority of US broker
  deals in both 2016 and 2017, or 55 percent and 54 percent,
  respectively.
  Average sale multiples in the US increased f
  
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• Maiden creates in-house tech innovation team

  22-03-2018 19:06
  Maiden Holdings has created an InsurTech team to help customers
  identify and apply emerging technologies, including when it comes
  to achieving strategic goals, the reinsurer said today.
  The "innovation solutions team", as the company calls
  it, will be led by Colin Fitt, Maiden's Chicago-based senior
  vice president for corporate development. Fitt's role includes
  mergers and acquisitions as well as investing, according to his
  LinkedIn page.
  Establishing the team continues an initiative Bermuda-bas
  
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• Lloyd's to explore ILS cover for central fund in 2019

  22-03-2018 19:06
  Lloyd's is looking at bringing in ILS capital next year to back
  the Corporation's Central Fund, following the introduction of
  the UK's new ILS framework.
  Lloyd's CFO John Parry said there had been "strong
  interest" from the ILS market in insuring the Lloyd's
  Central Fund, in comments made to the press after Lloyd's
  published its annual results.
  The Corporation is looking at bringing in ILS capital as soon as
  next year to back the Central Fund, following the introduction of...
  
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• InsurTech start-up Kin aims to double staff

  22-03-2018 19:06
  InsurTech homeowners' provider Kin expects to hire 40 people
  by the end of April, which may double its staff.
  The hiring goal was made public by COO Alex Cullen, a fintech
  veteran, in a post on his LinkedIn page.
  The Chicago-based P&C agency currently employs 55 people,
  co-founder and CEO Sean Harper said.
  The company uses artificial intelligence systems to parse
  publicly available data and provide insurance advice and services,
  according to the agency. It currently serves people in
  hurrican
  
  Read more

• Innovation initiatives will drive insurer M&A: EY

  22-03-2018 19:06
  The convergence of businesses and services insurers develop
  themselves as well as wider technology and other ecosystems that
  they are now operating in will create major M&A opportunities
  for the sector this year, EY predicts.
  "We expect to see a number of 'Wow, that changes
  everything' moments in 2018, as participants or new entrants
  announce innovative business initiatives that fundamentally alter
  the role and economics of significant elements of the insurance
  sector," the consulting firm f
  
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• Global InsurTech deal values jump by a third

  22-03-2018 19:06
  The value of InsurTech deals worldwide jumped by 32 percent to
  $2.3bn in 2017, according to data from Accenture and CB Insights,
  amid a surge in European insurance technology investment.
  InsurTech investment in Europe grew almost five-fold to $679mn
  in 2017. In Asia Pacific, the value of InsurTech M&A jumped by
  169 percent to $358mn.
  Accenture said the UK remains Europe's InsurTech capital,
  with $364mn invested in UK companies, up from $19mn in 2016.
  Property and casualty insurance was the..
  
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• China picks head of merged financial regulator: reports

  22-03-2018 19:06
  The Chinese government has selected the country's top
  banking regulator as head of a new body that will govern both the
  banking and insurance sectors, according to media reports.
  Guo Shuqing will take up a role at the People's Bank of
  China that combines the oversight functions of the China Banking
  Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and the China Insurance Regulatory
  Commission (CIRC).
  The Economic Observer reported that Guo will become
  chairman of the merged China Banking and Insurance Regulatory
  Com
  
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• Beazley's Maidment to retire at year-end

  22-03-2018 19:06
  Beazley chief underwriting officer (CUO) Neil Maidment is set to
  step down at the end of the year.
  In a public filing the carrier announced the executive will
  retire from the role on 31 December 2018 and will be replaced by
  Adrian Cox, who is currently head of specialty lines.
  Maidment joined Beazley in 1990. He led the firm's
  reinsurance division for 13 years from 1995 and was named CUO in
  2008. He is also active underwriter for Beazley's six...
  
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• Ascent names Weatherstone as non-exec chairman

  22-03-2018 19:06
  Former Arch Insurance Europe CEO James Weatherstone is to join
  Ascent Underwriting as non-executive chairman.
  Weatherstone stepped down as CEO of Arch Insurance Europe and
  Arch Underwriting at Lloyd's in December 2016.
  He then spent a year at Eaton Gate Managing General Underwriter,
  first as chief underwriting officer and then as non-executive
  director before resigning in January, according to his LinkedIn
  profile.
  Before Arch he held senior leadership roles at XL Group,
  Brockbank Syndicate Mana
  
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• AmTrust adds ex-KPMG auditor Serock to expanded board

  22-03-2018 19:06
  AmTrust added a former KPMG partner and audit specialist to its
  expanded board of directors today as it heads toward a $13.50 per
  share take-private deal backed by Stone Point.
  Members of the company's board voted to expand their number
  to eight and elected Mark Serock to the newly created seat as an
  independent director.
  Serock, who is 67 years old, retired from the big four
  accounting firm in 2011. After joining KPMG in 1973, the New Jersey
  resident was...
  
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• AIG details $2.5bn in debt sales tied to Validus deal

  22-03-2018 19:06
  AIG is selling $2.5bn in notes and debentures partly to raise
  cash as it arranges financing for the $5.56bn acquisition of
  (re)insurer Validus.
  The largest debt tranche, $1bn of 4.75 percent 30-year notes,
  was priced at a 58.7 basis point discount and carried a 170 basis
  point spread to benchmark Treasury securities, the New York-based
  insurer said in regulatory filings.
  Combined with another note offering and newly issued junior
  subordinated debentures, the insurer said it expects to collect
  $2
  
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• AI to upend liability models for insurers: Allianz

  22-03-2018 19:06
  The increased adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) will both
  solve problems and create new challenges for the insurance
  industry, according to Allianz.
  The technology, which involves the ability of computer systems
  to perform tasks that traditionally require human intelligence,
  will have a twofold effect on cyber risk, the financial giant said
  in a report released today.
  While AI offers the potential to reduce cyber risk by better
  detecting hacker attacks, cyber threats may also increase if
  
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• Meet the techies: Stephen Marshall

  22-03-2018 17:41
  Insure Apps managing director Stephen Marshall urges brokers to be innovative and embrace InsurTech.
  
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• Smart Driver Club in talks with insurers to increase capacity

  22-03-2018 15:44
  Smart Driver Club will expand its capacity in order to grow premiums by 200% over the next two years.
  
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• Business interruption to fall under terrorism cover

  22-03-2018 15:35
  Businesses disrupted by terrorist attacks will soon be able to claim under their insurance policy.
  
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• Business interruption to be covered by terrorism cover

  22-03-2018 15:35
  Businesses disrupted by terrorist attacks will soon be able to claim under their insurance policy.
  
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• Lloyd’s positive on ILS cover for Central Fund

  22-03-2018 12:42
  Capital from Insurance Linked Securities could be used to back the Lloyd’s Central Fund as early as next year, the market’s chief financial officer has said.
  
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• ICO boosts data protection staff ahead of GDPR

  22-03-2018 12:17
  FOI reveals 20% increase in numbers after ICO described being unprepared as its “largest single risk”.
  
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• Hiscox's Masojada named PPL chair

  22-03-2018 11:37
  Hiscox CEO Bronek Masojada has been named chair of the London market’s electronic placing platform.
  
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• Covéa Insurance launches Excel Business Combined

  22-03-2018 11:21
  Move comes after pilot project with brokers.
  
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• Sabre posts rising GWP and underwriting profit for 2017

  22-03-2018 10:22
  First results since motor insurer began trading on the London Stock Exchange on 11 December 2017.
  
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• Sabre delivers COR of 68.5% following IPO

  22-03-2018 10:16
  Sabre made an underwriting profit of £59m in 2017, with a combined ratio of 68.5%.
  
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• Call for bigger grants scheme to fund flood protection

  22-03-2018 09:24
  Better resilience measures would cut cost of home insurance, says think-tank
  
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• Blog: Segmentation can help insurers enter new markets

  22-03-2018 07:00
  Chris Cowan, managing director of Clusters, argues a targeted approach can help insurance companies stand out in a crowded market.
  
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