i-law.com - Newsletter (World Insurance Report)

30.11, crash, fatalities Turkey: a Turkish airliner crashed near the town of Isparta in central Turkey killing all 56 people on board. The 165-seat McDonnell Douglas MD-83 crashed in the mountains in the Isparta province of central Turkey. It had..

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Natural catastrophes

29.11, storms, fatalities Algeria: at least 11 people were killed when heavy rains struck parts of Algeria. The storms caused rivers to flood their banks, bridges and houses to collapse, while floodwaters blocked roads in parts of the country. Most..

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Marine

28.11, sinking, fatalities Taiwan: navy vessels and helicopters led a search for 26 sailors missing after bulk carrier Mezzanine (16067 gt, built 1975), with a crew of 27, sailing from Indonesia for China with a cargo of iron ore, sunk off the..

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Liability, awards and settlements

29.11, negligence charges Russia: transport prosecutors accused the directors of two Black Sea region ports of criminal negligence in connection with a series of shipwrecks earlier this month that resulted in a massive oil spill. Officials could..

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Property damage and business interruption

29.11, explosion, fatalities US: two workers died after an explosion and fire along a crude oil pipeline near the northern Minnesota town of Clearbrook. The two workers were fixing an underground pipeline when fumes apparently escaped and ignited..

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Amlin plc

The group did not buy any reinsurance for Amlin Bermuda in 2006 and significantly reduced the purchasing of retrocessional cover for the catastrophe reinsurance business written by its non-marine business division. Amlin does not believe that the cost of these programmes, mainly designed to protect against an accumulation of exposures, reflected the risk being transferred

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Opportunity as public sector business is opened to private sector

The major concern of Uruguay’s broker market at present is the new tax legislation introduced in December 2006 which, it is feared, will have a major financial and psychological impact on the middle class as it introduces personal income tax for the first time. Medium and high-income brokers expect to be badly affected by the new law despite the fact that it eliminates the commission tax of 9% that has been payable on all commissions

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Show of federal support helps to arrest market slide

There was a notable slowdown in the downward slide of insurance and reinsurance stocks for the two week period ending 13th December. As over the previous two and a half months, stock price movements the world over were largely dictated by..

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Chile’s health insurers win back lost membership numbers

However, the ISAPRES still only cover about 17% of the population, compared to the peak of 27% in 1997

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Regulator plans new guidelines for health insurers

The IRDA’s advisers have recommended a separate framework to attract more players and competition

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Max New York Life partners agree to new three-year funding plan

The company said higher levels of capital will allow it to fulfil expansion plans in the country

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Smaller insurers fear new solvency rules in regulatory overhaul

Firms will be required to submit their solvency ratio every quarter, adding pressure for smaller insurers

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Insurance fraud in the Ukraine

Emerging markets, and in particular Eastern Europe, are increasingly becoming a focus for the Innovation Group, a provider of anti-fraud services to the global insurance industry. In October, Mark Jones , senior vice president of Innovation went to the Ukraine with Nikki Grieve-Top, the group’s resident investigative psychologist and Dr Tomasz Lewandowski, President of an Innovation Group subsidiary, Innovation Conversant Data Polska, to visit the region at the invitation of General Victor Nikolaevich Beschastnuy who heads up the Donetsk Law Institute. The team attended an anti-fraud conference and conducted seminars on the role of data matching and mining and on the application of investigative psychology in detecting and solving insurance fraud. Mr Jones also presented a case study on the work of CIFAS, the fraud prevention service in the UK

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Munich Re shows commitment to primary insurer ERGO

The group has set ERGO a profit target of more than €900mn by 2012, which would represent an increase of 90% from 2006

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

International agreement on genetic testing in insurance falters

Only the Netherlands and Switzerland have opted to regulate genetic testing in insurance

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

National Indemnity losses dent reinsurers’ total profits

US reinsurers’ pre-tax income for the first nine months was down $1.5bn as a result of losses at the Berkshire unit

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Extending the length and breadth of insurance coverage

Integrated insurance programmes (which allow a company to secure insurance across multiple lines, typically at least two, in a single policy) are fast becoming a hot topic of conversation among risk managers and chief financial officiers, as growing numbers of companies take a strategic view of risk. With integrated insurance programmes, companies benefit from a level of customization not typically found with the traditional insurance buying approach. Additionally, the integrated approach can eliminate the “gray” areas that may exist when insurance is delivered line-by-line. Here, Jeffrey C. Summerville , president of Zurich Global Corporate Structured Solutions Group in New York, not only outlines the benefits but also addresses the challenges associated with integrated insurance programmes

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

‘Insuring’ climate chaos

The Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), the UK government department responsible for underwriting UK industry overseas, is part of a wider group of export credit agencies (ECAs) worldwide, which are collectively among the largest sources of..

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

28 years to pay $2mn claim

To date, the insurer has reportedly only paid $300,000 towards the initial claim

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007

Banks to take charge of credit insurance business

Institutions respond to excess profit accusations by consumer associations

Online Published Date: 21 December 2007

Appeared in issue: 828 - 21 December 2007