Insurance news

• Swiss Re consolidates European business under Cordioli

  27-03-2018 23:15
  Swiss Re has appointed Claudia Cordioli as managing director of
  western and southern Europe, bringing together two previously
  separate regions under her leadership.
  The move consolidates the reinsurer's France, Benelux and
  Switzerland operations with its Iberia, Mediterranean and Italy
  unit, which has been led by Cordioli since 2016.
  Prior to that role, she was CFO for Swiss Re's Reinsurance
  EMEA operations. She joined the company in 2003.
  The previous head of the France, Benelux and Switzerland
  
  Read more

• Root gets $51mn in more venture funding to fuel growth

  27-03-2018 23:15
  InsurTech startup Root has landed $51mn in additional capital
  from an expanded list of backers, including Redpoint Ventures and
  Scale Venture Partners.
  The two firms joined Ribbit Capital and Silicon Valley Bank
  Capital Partners in making fresh investments in the Columbus,
  Ohio-based licensed auto insurer, the company said today.
  Root offers private auto cover with rates based on telematics
  data derived from the insured's actual vehicle operation, based
  on a smartphone app. The three-year-old st
  
  Read more

• Beazley latest to offer EPL clients harassment help

  27-03-2018 23:15
  Beazley has created a hotline for the workers
  of its employment practices liability (EPL) customers in the US in
  response to an increased focus on sexual harassment in the
  workplace.
  The 24-hour hotline is intended to inform
  organisations about workplace issues before legal action is brought
  against them, the company said.
  The hotline will enable employees to report
  offenses to a trained operator.
  "It is intended to encourage early
  reporting, in turn enabling early detection of issues and
  ultima
  
  Read more

• Melrose bid for GKN must be a fairly fought battle of Britain

  27-03-2018 20:47 via ft.com
  Demands made of the bidder are not being applied to the target
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Everest Insurance international head retires

  27-03-2018 20:16
  Daryl Bradley, head of international operations at Everest
  Insurance, has retired after more than 20 years at the company,
  The Insurance Insider understands.
  Bradley, who is credited with the launch of Everest's
  Lloyd's syndicate, has now gone into retirement after oversight
  of the syndicate and the firm's Irish operations were handed to
  Jonathan Zaffino in January.
  Zaffino took on the expanded remit after he waspromoted to president and CEO of Everest Insurance from his
  former role of president
  
  Read more

• Peak Re profits jump fourfold on investment returns

  27-03-2018 17:31
  Net profit at Peak Re more than quadrupled in 2017 to $29.8mn,
  as strong investment returns eclipsed the company's first ever
  annual underwriting loss.
  The Fosun-owned reinsurer's combined ratio worsened to 105.1
  percent in 2017.
  That marked a 7.5 percentage point deterioration from the 2016
  figure reported by Peak Re itself last April.
  Peak Re's 2017 result was bolstered by a total investment
  return of 7.1 percent, compared to 6.4 percent in 2016, as
  investable assets grew to $1.54bn.
  Peak...
  
  Read more

• Crunch week dawns for Fairfield and Exin

  27-03-2018 17:31
  Matt Fairfield's Exin faces the most crucial week yet of its
  short existence as the deadline for financing its deal with Greek
  insurer Ethniki arrives and issues elsewhere in the group
  mount.
  Fairfield has until close of business tomorrow to satisfy
  selling entity the National Bank of Greece and regulator the Bank
  of Greece that he can finance the EUR718mn ($891mn) bid for
  Ethniki. He will also have to convince them that Exin is still the
  right owner for an...
  
  Read more

• Acturis teams up with FCA-authorised tech incubator

  27-03-2018 17:28
  Software house will provide technology to InsurTech Gateway and its start-ups.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Underwriting improvement must stem from managing agents: Hancock

  27-03-2018 15:10
  Lloyd's managing agents need to take more decisive action in
  ensuring their own underwriting performance is up to scratch, the
  Corporation's performance director Jon Hancock has said.
  Speaking to The Insurance Insider
  after the publication of Lloyd's' 2017 results, Hancock
  said there was "a lot more to be done" on the part of
  managing agents to improve the underwriting profitability of the
  market as a whole.
  "Of course, there are some brilliant underwriting firms
  that will do the right things...
  
  Read more

• Three cat bonds upsize and price at low end of range

  27-03-2018 15:10
  Three cat bond issues closed last week, surpassing their target
  sizes by 21-42 percent and pricing at the lower end of initial
  guidance.
  MS&AD Insurance Group's Akibare Re 2018-1 typhoon cat
  bond settled at $320mn (£224mn), an increase of 42 percent
  from its initial $225mn target size. Both tranches of the Japanese
  cat bond settled at 190 basis points (bps), after each launched
  with a guidance range of 200-250 bps.
  This translates into a 16 percent decrease, using the mid-point...
  
  Read more

• Starr joins forces with commercial drone InsurTech

  27-03-2018 15:10
  Starr has forged a partnership with drone safety and insurance
  start-up SkyWatch to provide cover for commercial drone pilots
  whose ranks look set to swell after the US Federal Aviation
  Administration (FAA) loosened licensing requirements.
  As one of the largest aviation insurers in the US, Starr already
  provides coverage to large and small commercial drone operators,
  according to Jim Anderson, senior vice president of Starr's
  aviation unit.
  Anderson said Israel-based SkyWatch has developed an
  "a
  
  Read more

• Opinion: Casualty concerns

  27-03-2018 15:10
  After a year like 2017, the spotlight will naturally fall on the
  property losses at Lloyd's. Hurricanes, wildfires and
  earthquakes all grab the headlines and will be front of mind when
  commentators assess what drove the overall loss at Lloyd's last
  year.
  However, as has already been pointed out elsewhere in this
  publication, the underlying result excluding catastrophes was poor
  too, due in part to the fact that casualty fell to a £189mn
  loss.
  While property remains the dominant risk...
  
  Read more

• Lloyd's underlying result exposes soft market damage

  27-03-2018 15:10
  Lloyd's 2017 results demonstrated the struggles of a
  cat-heavy market which has battled with falling rates and thinning
  profit margins for the best part of a decade.
  Last week, Lloyd's posted a full-year 2017 loss of £2bn
  ($2.83bn) after it absorbed about £4.5bn in net claims from
  major catastrophes during the year.
  The major claims pushed the market to a £3.4bn underwriting
  loss - its first in six years - as the combined ratio worsened by
  16.1 percentage points to...
  
  Read more

• Lloyd's targets close to £2bn of 'redundant' LoC capital

  27-03-2018 15:10
  Lloyd's is on a mission to get syndicates to rely less on
  letters of credit (LoCs), as Solvency II rules bite into a
  traditional source of underwriting capital.
  The Corporation is planning to introduce a limit on the amount
  of capital that syndicates can hold as LoCs, as part of efforts
  reduce its amount of Tier 2 capital to less than £7.5bn.
  Lloyd's CFO John Parry told journalists
  last week: "As a market, we use substantial amounts of letters
  of...
  
  Read more

• Lloyd's lays out Tom targets

  27-03-2018 15:10
  Lloyd's has laid out its market modernisation targets for the
  next two years, as the implementation of the Target Operating Model
  (Tom) gathers pace.
  The Corporation said that the Tom programme will have saved the
  Lloyd's market £145mn ($204mn) in costs by 2020.
  In the Lloyd's annual report, Lloyd's chief operating
  officer Shirine Khoury-Haq said that by the end of this year, a
  fifth of all binders would be processed through the new digital
  delegated authority data system.
  The system...
  
  Read more

• Lloyd's gauges strong ILS interest in Central Fund deal

  27-03-2018 15:10
  The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has expressed
  "strong interest" in insuring the Lloyd's Central
  Fund, according to Lloyd's chief financial officer John
  Parry.
  The Corporation is looking at bringing in ILS capital as soon as
  next year to back the Central Fund, following the introduction of
  the UK's new ILS framework, Parry told journalists after
  Lloyd's published its annual results.
  Parry said Lloyd's had already met with investors to discuss
  the possibility of involving alternative
  
  Read more

• Lloyd's denies ratings agency pressure on cat exposure

  27-03-2018 15:10
  The Corporation of Lloyd's yesterday issued a strong denial
  that it was under pressure from the ratings agencies or the
  Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to scale back the amount of
  catastrophe risk it is running.
  Four senior sources at managing agencies told The
  Insurance Insider Lloyd's was pushing them to
  write less catastrophe business than planned in 2018, buy
  additional reinsurance or put up more capital.
  Asked yesterday in an interview about the perceived crackdown,
  Lloyd's performanc
  
  Read more

• Lloyd's at crossroads as underlying returns slide to zero

  27-03-2018 15:10
  The need for change at Lloyd's was brought into sharp focus
  last week by 2017 results that showed a market lagging its
  competitors and losing money underwriting on an underlying
  basis.
  The aggregated result of the 95 Lloyd's syndicates was a
  £2.0bn ($2.9bn) loss and a combined ratio of 114.0
  percent.
  But even more striking was an accident-year ex-cat combined
  ratio of 98.4 percent in a market that typically takes 6-8 points
  of cat losses annually.
  Reserve releases are also...
  
  Read more

• 2017 results: Looking past the cats

  27-03-2018 15:10
  Catastrophe losses inevitably dominated the headlines in 2017.
  This is just the nature of the specialty P&C (re)insurance
  universe. Yet, the underlying results also continue to paint a
  bleak picture.
  Following a long softening cycle, underlying results are showing
  significant signs of strain. The expense ratio speaks to
  cost-control challenges, driven by efforts by brokers to squeeze
  more of the economics out of the business in a highly competitive
  market. In particular, this can be seen at
  
  Read more

• Meet the techies: David Vanek

  27-03-2018 13:18
  David Vanek, founder and CEO of Axa-backed Anorak, tells us how brokers can make their advice more accessible to clients through using technology.
  
  Read more

• Ed hires risk solutions director from JLT's Lloyd & Partners

  27-03-2018 12:53
  London-based (re)insurance broker Ed has appointed Dean Herman
  as divisional director for the risk solutions team.
  Herman joins the firm from JLT Specialty's Lloyd &
  Partners, where he was head of US property.
  At Lloyd, Herman placed global accounts into the Lloyd's,
  London company and continental European markets.
  He worked across industry sectors including real estate, retail,
  hospitality, chemicals and manufacturing.
  He brings more than 20 years of industry experience to his new
  role, whe
  
  Read more

• FOS reveals top five most complained about insurers

  27-03-2018 12:31
  Total number of new general insurance complaints fell by 16% in second half of 2017.
  
  Read more

• Wilson sees earnings slashed despite Aviva profit

  27-03-2018 11:57
  Aviva CEO Mark Wilson has seen total earnings fall despite the company returning to profit this year, continuing a trend of ongoing executive pay cuts.
  
  Read more

• Zurich has lowest US asbestos reserves out of Europeans

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Zurich would only be able to sustain six and a half years of
  payments related to US asbestos claims at current payout levels,
  which is weaker than the US market average, according to analysis
  from Bernstein Research.
  Analyst Thomas Seidl wrote in a note today that although Zurich
  has the lowest nominal exposure to US asbestos claims, it has the
  weakest "survival ratio" out of his covered European
  carriers.
  The survival ratio is the number of years current reserves will...
  
  Read more

• UK solicitors' regulator proposes lower PI limits

  27-03-2018 10:31
  The UK's Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has proposed
  reducing the amount of mandatory professional indemnity (PI)
  insurance cover that law firms must buy, arguing that most claims
  are settled well under the current limit.
  The SRA said it wants to reform a "one-size-fits-all"
  regime that is creating barriers to entry and pushing up prices for
  users of legal services.
  The current rules mean that law firms must have minimum cover of
  £2mn ($2.8mn) for a single claim, rising to ...
  
  Read more

• Twice the reinsurers see key ratio over 100%: Fitch

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Twenty-six North American P&C (re)insurers reviewed by Fitch
  saw a calendar-year combined ratio above 100% in 2017, up from 11
  companies in 2016, according to a report issued by the ratings firm
  today.
  Some 51 North American P&C reinsurers saw their group
  combined ratio increase by 5.1 points to 102.0%, compared to 96.2%
  in 2016, according to their GAAP financial results, Fitch
  reported.
  It was the first time since 2011 that the group saw an
  underwriting loss, the firm said....
  
  Read more

• PCS puts Riley losses at $1.36bn

  27-03-2018 10:31
  PCS has released an initial loss figure for Winter Storm Riley of
  $1.36bn, The Insurance Insider's
  sister publication Trading Risk has
  reported.
  Riley hit the US east coast at the beginning of March, bringing
  snow, rain and flooding to Boston.
  The PCS number was released towards the end of last week,
  according to sources,
  The winter storm has already caused losses in the cat bond
  market.
  Last week Trading Risk reported that
  several low-lying aggregate tranches of Residential Re cat...
  
  Read more

• Opinion: N@ming conventions

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Most InsurTech and reinsurance start-ups presumably get underway
  because they want to break and remould "the system".
  But the problem is they often take this corporate mission so far
  to heart that they carry it over into the task of coming up with a
  name for their endeavour.
  And that's where they run the risk of irking every single
  journalist and sub-editor that will ever have to work on a story
  about them.
  The first thing these start-ups can do...
  
  Read more

• Opinion: Mortgage maverick

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Imagin. The name may have been designed to conjure up some kind
  of utopia where swathes of credit risk are offloaded by Freddie Mac
  to the private market, easing the load on government finances in a
  housing downturn.
  But leaked news and half-truths about the "integrated
  mortgage insurance" pilot programme with Arch earlier this
  month instead triggered a near-existential crisis among the clutch
  of private mortgage insurers (PMIs).
  After a knee-jerk sell-off by nervous investors, the furore
  appear
  
  Read more

• Kilpatrick backs healthcare MGA Equipsme

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Russell Kilpatrick, the former Dual executive, has invested in
  InsurTech healthcare MGA Equipsme, the firm announced today.
  Kilpatrick, who will also become chairman, has been managing and
  developing MGAs since the 1990s.
  He helped to set up Dual Corporate Risks in 2003 and went on to
  hold several senior board-level roles across Dual businesses.
  During Kilpatrick's time at Dual, the business - initially a
  niche player - expanded to become the biggest MGA in London by a
  long way, writing...
  
  Read more

• HDI profit slides 64% in 2017 as losses burst budget

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Talanx-owned HDI Global has said 2017 profits fell by almost 64
  percent after losses from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and
  Mexican earthquakes pushed the industrial insurer into an
  underwriting loss.
  The carrier reported a 2017 operating profit of EUR109mn
  ($134.6mn), down from EUR302mn in 2016.
  It said its performance took a downturn from mid-August, with
  claims from third-quarter catastrophes compounded by man-made
  losses that were higher than anticipated.
  The group's underwriting result
  
  Read more

• Grenfell insurer Ocaso incurs $8.1mn in Kensington claims

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Grenfell insurer Ocaso has lifted the price of insuring
  Kensington council leasehold properties by almost 86 percent after
  incurring more than £5.7mn ($8.1mn) of claims in the policy
  year beginning 1 April 2017.The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea revealed the change
  in a report delivered by head of insurance Ray Chitty to its
  housing and property scrutiny committee on 13 March.The fire on 14 June tore through the West London tower block,
  killing 71 people and leaving...
  
  Read more

• Greenberg's Starr loses bid to challenge AIG bailout

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Maurice "Hank" Greenberg and his Starr International
  lost a challenge against the federal government's actions
  involving a massive bailout of AIG during the financial crisis, as
  the US Supreme Court refused to take up the matter.
  Starr has argued that the government's sale of AIG equity
  during the financial crisis amounted to an illegal seizure of value
  from shareholders, which included the company. Greenberg, currently
  Starr's chairman and CEO, ran AIG for about four decades before
  he was ouste
  
  Read more

• Fidelis posts 86% combined ratio for 2017

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Richard Brindle's (re)insurer Fidelis has reported an 86.0
  percent combined ratio for 2017, the week after the Corporation
  disclosed that the metric for the Lloyd's market was 114.0
  percent.
  Fidelis told The Insurance Insider
  that it had delivered a maiden profit of $31mn, prior to the $27mn
  paid out in dividends to preference shareholders, as the top line
  at the 2015 start-up hit $546mn.
  The Bermuda-domiciled specialty (re)insurer disclosed an
  accident-year, ex-cat combined ratio of 72.5 percen
  
  Read more

• Darag adds legacy-to-live capabilities with New Nordic

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Darag has forged a partnership with London-based investment
  management company New Nordic Capital that will allow the legacy
  carrier to bid for legacy-to-live deals.
  New Nordic Capital is the asset management arm of New Nordic
  Group and specialises in Solvency II-optimised investment
  strategies.
  Under the agreement, Darag's protected cell company in Malta
  will create a new cell for the venture, which will be jointly owned
  by the legacy carrier and New Nordic.
  That cell will then be used for busi
  
  Read more

• BHSI hires from Chubb for new Perth office

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) has bolstered its
  Australian presence by opening a new office in Perth and making two
  appointments to lead business development at the regional base.
  The Perth office will write the same classes of business as
  BHSI's other operations in Australia, which range from
  casualty, property and mining to marine, accident and health, and
  professional lines.
  Anthony Prindiville has been hired to lead its casualty
  underwriting segment, while Mark Shepard has jo
  
  Read more

• B3i founders launch start-up

  27-03-2018 10:31
  The (re)insurers behind the Blockchain Insurance Industry
  Initiative (B3i) have incorporated the scheme as a new company
  ahead of a fundraising drive.
  B3i Services AG will be based in Zurich and is set to raise
  funds from a "wide spectrum of insurance industry
  participants" over the coming months.
  The launch of the new company marks the next phase in the
  experimental programme, which seeks to find ways for the industry
  to exchange (re)insurance contracts using blockchain.
  Last year B3i completed
  
  Read more

• Axa's Buberl defends XL deal

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Axa CEO Thomas Buberl said it will probably take 12 to 18 months
  to convince investors that buying XL Group is the right
  decision.
  In an interview with the Financial Times, Buberl said
  he had anticipated the marketwould react negatively to the transaction.
  Axa shares have dropped 15.6 percent to EUR21.50 since the start
  of March, before the XL deal was announced.
  Buberl acknowledged that the scale of the XL purchase, which was
  one of half a dozen acquisitions...
  
  Read more

• Assurant locks in prices on $900mn debt sale

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Assurant expects to complete a $900mn debt sale tomorrow that
  would raise cash for its $1.9bn deal to buy The Warranty Group from
  a private equity investor.
  After discounts to the underwriters, Assurant expects to net
  $893.2mn from the debt issues, according to Securities and Exchange
  Commission filings.
  The sale includes $300mn in floating-rate senior notes that come
  due in March 2021, $300mn in 4.2 percent senior notes that mature
  in September 2023, and $300mn in 4.9 percent senior notes...
  
  Read more

• Argo Syndicate 1200 pulls out of primary hab

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Argo Group has withdrawn from writing primary habitational
  business via its Lloyd's syndicate, The Insurance
  Insider has learned.
  The carrier, whose Syndicate 1200 was a frequent lead market on
  habitational placements in London, will still write excess layers
  elsewhere in the group, according to sources.
  The decision follows a period of heavy losses on habitational
  business for property direct and facultative (D&F)
  insurers.
  Habitational accounts were already running on wafer-thin profit
  mar
  
  Read more

• Aon Captive CEO Mullen to take helm at Artex

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Artex Risk Solutions has said that one of its founders, Peter
  Mullen, will rejoin the company as CEO-elect and take over
  leadership of the AJ Gallagher subsidiary in March 2019.
  Mullen has been CEO at Aon Captive & Insurance Management
  for the past seven years.
  Before joining Aon in 2011, he helped to found Artex in1997.
  The firm's current CEO David McManus will move into the role
  of chairman next year when Mullen takes over.
  Artex has been growing significantly...
  
  Read more

• Aon Benfield's Connolly to retire

  27-03-2018 10:31
  Aon Benfield marine managing director John Connolly is set to
  step down after 40 years at the company.
  Commenting on the departure, Bob Bisset, CEO of Aon
  Benfield's Global ReSpecialty team, described Connolly as a
  "true statesman" in the London market.
  "I was always impressed with his ability to engage and
  interact with clients and colleagues at all levels," he
  added.
  Aon Benfield's head of marine isTom Wakefield, whom the company persuaded to come back after he
  resigned in...
  
  Read more

• AIG hires general insurance marketing chief from MMC

  27-03-2018 10:31
  AIG has recruited Ed Dandridge from Marsh & McLennan Companies
  (MMC) as head of marketing and communications at its general
  insurance unit.
  Dandridge follows Peter Zaffino, the former CEO of MMC broker
  Marsh, to the insurance giant. He will report to Zaffino, who is
  now CEO of general insurance.
  AIG said Dandridge will join AIG's general insurance
  executive leadership team.
  At MMC the former attorney was global chief of marketing and
  communications. His previous positions have included that
  
  Read more

• Tokio Marine Kiln unveils new cyber insurance

  27-03-2018 10:29
  TMK partners with XCyber on cyber activity and Sytorus on GDPR.
  
  Read more

• Analysis: What happened to CBL Insurance?

  27-03-2018 07:00
  Last month once again saw a passported insurer placed into liquidation, with the collapse of CBL causing ripples throughout Europe
  
  Read more

• Axa chief defends XL Group deal

  27-03-2018 06:00 via ft.com
  Thomas Buberl vows to convince investors over €12.4bn acquisition
  
  Read more

• Axa chief defends controversial XL Group deal

  27-03-2018 06:00 via ft.com
  Thomas Buberl vows to convince investors over €12.4bn acquisition
  
  Read more

Follow @Insurance_UKnws on Twitter!