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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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827 - 07 December 2007
London P&I Club expects more large claims
International
Online Published Date:
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..
Online Published Date:
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..
Online Published Date:
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
Online Published Date:
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
Online Published Date:
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
Online Published Date:
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
Online Published Date:
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
Online Published Date:
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
Online Published Date:
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
Online Published Date:
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
Online Published Date:
07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
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
Online Published Date:
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..
Online Published Date:
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
Online Published Date:
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
Online Published Date:
07 December 2007
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827 - 07 December 2007
Millea to acquire Kiln
Asia
Online Published Date:
21 December 2007
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828 - 21 December 2007
FSA to regulate holiday insurance
Europe
Online Published Date:
21 December 2007
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828 - 21 December 2007
Tort costs down in 2006
North America
Online Published Date:
21 December 2007
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828 - 21 December 2007
P&I club claims climb
International
Online Published Date:
21 December 2007
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828 - 21 December 2007
Insured losses top US$25bn in 2007
International
Online Published Date:
21 December 2007
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828 - 21 December 2007
Aviation
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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828 - 21 December 2007