Insurance news

• US Risk sets up lawyer liability risk purchasing group

  19-04-2018 22:24
  US Risk Underwriters, a unit of property and casualty wholesaler
  US Risk, has set up a risk purchasing group to underwrite lawyers
  professional liability coverage, the company said today.
  The underwriting platform was created to serve firms with up to
  25 lawyers, according to the Dallas-based global specialty lines
  wholesaler.
  The group was established in conjunction with the
  intermediary's Specialty Programs team and "an AM Best A
  rated stable admitted carrier partner".
  US Risk declined to name
  
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• Ford is latest MS Amlin departure

  19-04-2018 22:24
  MS Amlin's head of underwriting risk, David Ford, has left
  the specialty (re)insurer, The Insurance
  Insider can reveal.
  Ford joined Amlin in September 2002 as business intelligence
  manager and was then made group catastrophe risk manager in 2008.
  He was widely understood to be Chief Underwriting Officer James
  Illingworth's right-hand man.
  His departure comes after a series of high-profile decampments
  as Amlin targets a 10 percent reduction in staff costs
  following heavy 2017 losses.Last week it
  
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• FCA calls on preference share issuers to review investor advice

  19-04-2018 17:32
  UK regulator wants risks and rewards to be made clear in wake of Aviva case
  
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• AIG moves European business to new UK and Luxembourg units

  19-04-2018 17:00
  AIG has established new insurance companies in the UK and Luxembourg in order to ensure continuity of business after Brexit.
  
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• Aviva/preference shares: don’t shoot the puppies

  19-04-2018 16:58
  An imbroglio that companies, lawmakers and regulators must resolve
  
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• Moody's lifts ratings for Mapfre's Global Risks and Asistencia

  19-04-2018 16:46
  Ratings agency Moody's has lifted the insurance financial
  strength ratings of specialty commercial insurer Mapfre Global
  Risks and consumer insurer Mapfre Asistencia by one notch. Both are
  now rated A2, up from A3.
  The outlook on both entities remains stable, in line with that
  of Spain's sovereign rating.
  The ratings action follows Moody's upgrade of Spain's
  sovereign rating to Baa1 from Baa2 on 13 April.
  "Moody's regards Mapfre's credit quality as being
  partially linked to that of the Spanish s
  
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• Allstate pegs Q1 pre-tax cat losses at $361mn

  19-04-2018 16:46
  Allstate took an estimated $361mn in pre-tax catastrophe losses
  and unfavourable cat reserve developments in the first quarter.
  For March alone, the US's largest personal lines carrier
  expects $222mn in pre-tax cat losses, more than half of which stem
  from a storm in the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern US.
  The losses are considerably more benign than last year's
  first quarter, when Allstate reported $781mn in cat claims.
  Allstate said that 11 cat events took place in the first three
  months of...
  
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• AIG gains clearances for Brexit entities as portfolio transfer begins

  19-04-2018 16:46
  AIG has received regulatory authorisations for two new insurance
  companies in preparation for Brexit, putting it ahead of many
  rivals in its contingency planning.
  The restructuring entails the creation of two new insurance
  companies, one in the UK and one in Luxembourg.
  All AIG Europe Ltd business will be transferred to one of the
  two new entities ahead of Brexit, the company said.
  AIG announced plans to create a subsidiary in Luxembourg to
  write across the EU and the European...
  
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• Konsileo to offer 'bespoke' customer data for underwriting

  19-04-2018 16:31
  Konsileo said its service will improve the claims process for insurers by providing underwriters more insight into risks.
  
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• Generali to sell Belgium business for €540m

  19-04-2018 15:46
  Italy’s largest insurer Generali is to sell its Belgium-based subsidiary to Bermuda-based Athora Holdings for €540m (£469.5m).
  
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• Ardonagh looking at deals worth £500m

  19-04-2018 15:39
  CEO David Ross says focus will be on integration and international expansion.
  
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• Animatronic Arnie pushes PPI complaints to four-year high

  19-04-2018 14:45
  A 40% rise reported on back of advert featuring model head of Arnold Schwarzenegger An advertising campaign featuring an animatronic head of Arnold Schwarzenegger urging people to “make a decision, do it now!” has helped push complaints about payment protection insurance (PPI) to a four-year high.The total amount of compensation paid since January 2011 to people who were mis-sold the policies is £30bn. In January 2018 alone, banks and other financial firms paid £415m. Rel
  
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• Start-up Envelop Risk names CUO

  19-04-2018 14:28
  Envelop Risk, a start-up cyber MGA and analytics company, has named
  ex-Hannover Re underwriter Ari Chatterjee as chief underwriting
  officer.
  Chatterjee was formerly lead cyber underwriter at Hannover Re in
  Bermuda, Envelop Risk said.
  Envelop Risk has offices in Boston, Washington DC and Bermuda.
  The start-up uses artificial intelligence to inform its
  underwriting decisions.
  The company launched earlier this week, under the leadership of
  Jonathan Spry.
  Envelop Risk uses an MGA-type model but will
  
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• Ardonagh Group adjusted Ebitda surges 20% in 2017

  19-04-2018 14:28
  The Ardonagh Group has posted pro-forma adjusted Ebitda growth
  of 20.3 percent to £161.5mn ($230mn) for 2017, driven by
  advances in the distribution and wholesale divisions.
  However, the firm fell to an overall loss of £260.9mn for
  the year, up more than five-fold on a year earlier, following an
  increase in transformation costs, regulatory costs and a
  £84.5mn goodwill impairment relating to the underwriting
  business
  The results capture the year in which the company was formed
  a
  
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• Aon's Schultz predicts M&A uptick in ILS sector

  19-04-2018 14:28
  M&A activity in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector
  will ramp up in 2018 and may spark an increase in reinsurance
  buying, according to Aon Securities CEO Paul Schultz.
  Speaking at sister publication Trading
  Risk's London ILS Conference this
  morning, Schultz said strong valuations of ILS (re)insurers,
  greater certainty around the tax treatment of ILS products in the
  US, and record levels of excess capital would continue to make
  acquisitions an attractive proposition.
  At the same time
  
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• FCA data reveals huge surge in PPI complaints

  19-04-2018 11:56 via insuranceage.co.uk
  Increase in second half of 2017 coincides with launch of advertising campaign, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, to publicise claims deadline.
  
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• Swiss Re chair predicts sharing economy will halve premiums

  19-04-2018 11:54
  Swiss Re's chairman Walter Kielholz has predicted that the
  advent of self-driving cars will result in global insurance
  premiums halving, as people move away from owning vehicles.
  Speaking to Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Kielholz said that
  in future, people will no longer own vehicles and will instead
  "press a button" to call a self-driving car to their
  door.
  "It may well be that car dealers will disappear. But the
  insurers will also feel the change hard. Half of the premium volume...
  
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• Opinion: Social tedium

  19-04-2018 11:54
  JD Wetherspoon chairman and founder Tim Martin is a career
  contrarian.
  From Brexit to his insistence on keeping his pubs music free
  he's frequently gone against the prevailing wisdom - and
  drummed up useful publicity for his near-900-strong chain in the
  process.
  And so on Monday he declared his company would deactivate its
  Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts. The medium is
  bad for democracy, addictive, and distracting for staff, he said.
  Whether the move was quixotic, opportunistic
  
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• Ex-PICC president pleads guilty to graft: report

  19-04-2018 11:54
  The former president of PICC, Wang Yincheng, has reportedly
  pleaded guilty to corruption, in the same week the former head of
  the defunct Chinese insurance regulator was charged with graft.
  According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Wang is accused
  of accepting over 8.7mn yuan ($1.4mn) in bribes from 2006 to
  2016.
  Wang appeared in the Intermediate People's Court of Fuzhou,
  Fujian province, on Monday and expressed remorse as he pleaded
  guilty, Xinhua said.
  He was vice chairman and president..
  
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• CoverFox raises $22mn in World Bank-backed VC round

  19-04-2018 11:54
  Indian digital insurance broker CoverFox has raised $22mn in a
  funding round led by the World Bank's International Finance
  Corporation and US life insurer Transamerica, the company said on
  social media.
  According to the Times of India, the funding values the
  whole of CoverFox at around $110mn.
  CoverFox is a price comparison site and motor, health and life
  broker. Existing backers of the start-up include venture capital
  funds SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Catamaran Ventures, the
  family office
  
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• Towergate owners post £261m loss for 2017

  19-04-2018 11:41
  Ardonagh Group reveals Ebitda loss of £42.5m.
  
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• Ardonagh posts 11.3% rise in income for 2017

  19-04-2018 11:41
  Firm says 3.5% of income growth was achieved organically as adjusted Ebitda increases to £114.3m.
  
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• Ensurance adds combined construction liability policy

  19-04-2018 10:54
  The combined liability offering also caters for environmental impairment.
  
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• Video: York regional review - part one

  19-04-2018 10:52
  Brokers tell all about the competitive market in the city and how the floods affected the insurance market.
  
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• Blog: Insurers should cover recyclables price volatility

  19-04-2018 07:00
  The reluctance of current players in the waste sector to manage recyclables price risk presents opportunities for the insurance sector, explains Surabhin Chackiath, waste and resource management consultant at SLR Consulting.
  
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• Five tax traps to avoid in retirement

  19-04-2018 06:01
  From the pensions lifetime allowance to minimising inheritance tax
  
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• Alleghany's RSUI operating units get an S&P upgrade

  19-04-2018 03:05
  Alleghany's insurance operating companies' financial
  strength ratings have been upgraded one step to A+ by S&P
  Global Ratings (S&P), which also revised the group's status
  to "core" from "highly strategic", the ratings
  provider said today.
  The core operating units include RSUI Indemnity, Landmark
  American Insurance, and Covington Specialty, S&P said. All were
  previously rated A.
  S&P also affirmed its A+ ratings on Alleghany's core
  reinsurance operating entities. All the ratings ac
  
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• RLI beats estimates to begin Q1 P&C earnings season

  19-04-2018 00:44
  Specialty property and casualty carrier RLI kicked off the US
  industry's first quarter earnings season with results that
  handily beat Wall Street estimates as its combined ratio improved
  and favourable reserve development more than doubled.
  RLI posted operating earnings of$26.7mn, or $0.60 per share,
  surpassing the $0.53 per share consensus of analysts reported by
  Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and the $0.52 average of six estimates
  compiled by MarketWatch.
  Underwriting gains for the period climbed
  
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• Cooley bulks up East Coast InsurTech legal practice

  19-04-2018 00:44
  Cooley has added a team of East Coast lawyers to the Silicon
  Valley law firm's practice focused on insurance, reinsurance
  and InsurTech ventures.
  Attorney's Heidi Lawson and Greg Hoffnagle have joined
  Cooley from Boston-based Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and
  Popeo's insurance, reinsurance, investigations and risk
  management practice as counsel and special counsel, respectively,
  the Palo Alto, California-based law firm said today.
  Lawson, an insurance-broker-turned-lawyer, most recently spent
  
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• Arch taps ILS market for $374.5mn in mortgage cover

  19-04-2018 00:44
  Arch Capital's mortgage insurance unit has closed another
  reinsurance deal with Bellemeade Re, the reinsurance structure it
  acquired from AIG with United Guaranty at the start of last
  year.
  The new $374.5mn transaction primarily involves obligations
  taken on in the second half of last year and marks the fourth in a
  series of reinsurance deals involving Bellemeade. In all, over
  $1.3bn in protection has been provided for loans with over $117bn
  in unpaid balances, Arch Mortgage Insurance Company sa
  
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