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ACR adopts catastrophe platform
Asia
Online Published Date:
07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
UK commercial market to outperform personal lines
Europe
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Antares funds in place
New York based private equity investment firm, Lightyear Capital announced that it has put in place all the funding for Antares Holdings, the Bermuda-based holding company which will provide the capital for Lloyd’s syndicate 1274. The latter..
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Chubb addresses gap in D&O market
US
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Montpelier Re expands US risks at Lloyd’s
US
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07 December 2007
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London P&I Club expects more large claims
International
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Aviation
15.11, collision
France: ten people were hurt when an Airbus 340-600 aircraft hit a parapet during an engine test on the ground at an airport in southern France. Airbus said that three people had been seriously hurt but their lives were not in..
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Natural catastrophes
13.11, storms
Canada: high winds battered southern British Columbia, leaving more than 200,000 people without power and stranding thousands of airplane and ferry passengers. BC Hydro crews struggled to repair more than 400 separate power outages..
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Marine
13.11, oil spill
US: Coast Guard investigators tried to determine whether speed and possible communication problems led to fully cellular containership COSCO Busan
contacting a bridge a week earlier that resulted in San Francisco Bay’s worst..
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Road and rail
14.11, train strike
Germany: train drivers began a 62-hour nationwide strike on freight routes and planned to escalate the strike the following day in their long-running wage dispute with rail operator Deutsche Bahn. The strike, which economists..
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Property damage and business interruption
13.11, strike, business interruption
Russia: St Petersburg dockers went on an unlimited strike demanding a 30% rise in tariffs and guaranteed wages. In total, 360 people participated in the strike. According to the dockers’ union, the daily..
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Scor Group
It took a change in chief executive and two strategic plans, one of two years duration (the “Back on Track” plan) and another of three years duration (the “Moving Forward” plan), for the company to regain a sense of its former confidence as well as its financial strength ratings
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Competition limited by dominant positions of two main players
Life insurance products in Israel have undergone substantial changes in terms of the structure and conditions of the policies marketed to the public since 1 January 2004 in order to make them more transparent, limit the commissions, clarify pricing and charges, and to restrict “switching” by agents from one policy type to another in order to enhance commission
Online Published Date:
07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Thanks Giving retail recovery not enough to arrest slide
The values of insurance and reinsurance stocks once again followed a markedly downward trend for the fortnight ending 29 November.
But the final figures for the period do not register the two or three incidents of courageous rallying by financial..
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Earthquake triggers payments from Caribbean catastrophe fund
Provisional calculations suggest losses from Dominica and St Lucia will be enough to draw from the facility
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Mapfre further consolidates leading position in Latin America
The acquisition of Real Seguros will give Mapfre a 23% share in each market • Mapfre leads regional ranking
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Local insurers focused on overseas expansion
China Life already has subsidiaries in Hong Kong and New York but speculation suggests it is ready for a large foreign buy
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
High profile firm becomes 13th finance house to collapse
Capital and Merchant Finance owes NZ$165mn, and will have to pay back NZ$65mn to US lender Fortress as a priority
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Sector inquiry ends, but extension of block exemption is questioned
While the EC recognises the benefits that subscription market arrangements bring in terms of greater capacity, risk divestment, lower prices and better terms for clients, the Commission remains unconvinced that these benefits could not be achieved without the harmonisation of premiums that currently frequently occurs where business is written on a subscription basis. Lesley Ainsworth , a partner and EC competition law specialist at London law firm Lovells, details the EC’s view of the issue
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Draft directive promises greater legal certainty on VAT exemptions
Current legislation, dating back to 1977, exempts insurers and other financial institutions from VAT • Generali acquires Cestar
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Life reinsurer secures private equity funding for Canadian unit
Aurigen Re raises C$500mn to launch Aurigen Canada • Cigna Corp acquires Great-West Life’s healthcare business
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
US asbestos losses almost “fully funded”
Unfunded environmental liabilities totalled $22bn at the end of last year, while outstanding asbestos costs were just $3bn
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07 December 2007
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Rates for 2008 will make it a “buyer’s market”
Rates for casualty insurance coverage may decline as much as 5% to 10% next year while property rates remains flat
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Mitigating catastrophe risk in the Caribbean
The 7.4 magnitude earthquake which struck the Caribbean on 29 November and which caused property damage from Trinidad northwards to Dominica highlighted the existence of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) launched in June, 2007 with the support of the World Bank and the international donor community. Provisional calculations by Caribbean Risk Managers Ltd, in their role as Supervisor of the CCRIF, suggest that two CCRIF member countries, Dominica and Saint Lucia, will likely receive a payment from the Facility, the quake having been of sufficient magnitude to trigger their parametric policies. The CCRIF is operated by regional insurance brokers, the CGM Group, through their risk management company, CaribRM. Here, Dr Simon Young,
chief executive of CaribRM, outlines the structure and objectives of the CCRIF
Online Published Date:
07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Rising to the retirement challenge in Asia
According to Hong Kong’s Commissioner of Insurance,
Richard Yuen
, the island’s elderly dependency ratio will increase from 166 retirees in 2005 to 428 retirees per 1,000 working people in 2033. This means that there will only be some..
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
No shift on FDI limit
Although the bulk (80%) of FDI into India is not subjected to caps, the government is maintaining FDI limits on the insurance, banking and telecoms sectors
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Policy resale allegations
Some UK life insurance companies are accused of conducting a passive resistance campaign against a recent directive from the FSA to advise policyholders that they have an alternative to surrendering their underperforming endowment policies and to facilitate the resale of such policies
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07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007