Source: Business Insurance

October 08, 2019 Steel products maker Celsa Manufacturing (U.K.) Ltd. has been fined £1.8 million ($2.2 million) after two engineers died in an explosion at Celsa Steelworks site in Cardiff, PBC Today reports. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that a flammable atmosphere developed within the accumulator where the engineers were working.

Source: Business Insurance

October 08, 2019 Nearly 500 million customers of British Airways PLC are set to initiate mass class action legal action against the company for the Magecart security breach in 2018, The Inquirer reports. The legal action will add to the already high costs that British Airways had to bear when its payment pages were hacked in August and September last year.

Source: Business Insurance

Claire Wilkinson October 07, 2019 U.S. commercial property/casualty insurance rates rose 4% on average in the third quarter of 2019, up from 3% in the second quarter, online insurance exchange MarketScout Corp. said Monday. By industry class, habitational and transportation businesses saw the highest average rate increases at 6% and 7.5%, respectively, MarketScout Corp. said.

Source: Business Insurance

Judy Greenwald October 08, 2019 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said Tuesday it anticipates a “public safety power shutoff” to more than 600,000 customers across portions of nearly 30 northern, central, coastal and Bay Area California counties beginning Wednesday that may last several days as a “precautionary measure” to reduce wildfire risk in those areas because of windy weather.San Francisco-based PG&E said if it decides to implement the safety shutoff, it would begin turning power off early Wednesday morning. It said based on the latest weather forecast and models, it anticipates the period of peak winds will occur from early Wednesday morning and last through midday Thursday.

Source: Business Insurance

UAE airline reports losses on Boeing 737 Max groundings

Source: Business Insurance

October 01, 2019 U.S. sanctions on China-based Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co. Ltd. has led to an immediate rise in the rates of oil tankers, FreightWaves reported. Tanker rates were already elevated following attacks on Saudi oil facilities. The United States has imposed sanctions on the company for allegedly carrying Iranian crude.

Source: Business Insurance

October 01, 2019 Analysts at Deutsche Bank AG said that typhoon Faxai is expected to push the big four reinsurers beyond their natural catastrophe budgets for the third quarter, Artemis reports. These reinsurers include Swiss Re Ltd., Scor SE, Munich Reinsurance Co. and Hannover Re SE. Swiss Re is expected to take the largest hit from the typhoon given its market share in Japan.

Source: Business Insurance

Gavin Souter September 24, 2019 LAS VEGAS — Drone technology can significantly reduce claims processing costs, but barriers remain to universal adoption by insurers and claims adjusters, a panel of experts said. Safety and privacy concerns of regulators and the general public have blocked wider use of drones in the claims process, but regulators will likely ease restrictions in the future, and drone operators can take actions to ease other concerns, they said. Drones began to take off in the insurance claims sector in 2012, said Michael Park, chief product and marketing officer of EagleView Technologies Inc., a Bellevue, Washington-based aerial imagery and data analytics firm. He was speaking during a session Tuesday at the InsureTech Connect conference in Las Vegas. Drones can reduce claims processing costs by up to 75% and greatly reduce the time it takes to complete a damage assessment, he said.

Source: Business Insurance

Matthew Lerner September 30, 2019 MS Amlin PLC will pull out of nine classes of business as it reorganizes its underwriting operations, the Lloyd’s of London insurer said in a statement Monday. Discontinued operations and lines include U.K. corporate property, real estate, casualty, package binders and fleet business, aviation, international bloodstock, U.K. yacht and its AUA Insolvency Risk Services, the statement said. MS Amlin said the dropped lines will “trade as normal” as it seeks long-term solutions for each of them, the statement said. The insurer and reinsurer said it will focus on “high-value” reinsurance, led by CEO Chris Beazley and Chief Underwriting Officer Dominic Peters, the statement said. MS Amlin will also create a specialty insurance business by combining its marine and property/casualty international platforms headed by CEO Tom Clementi and Co-Chief Underwriting Officers Andrew Wright and Mark Clements, the statement said. The insurer and reinsurer said it would also “selectively operate domestic specialty markets in European commercial insurance,” headed up by Rudy Benmeridja, interim CEO and chief underwriting officer.

Source: Business Insurance

Judy Greenwald October 01, 2019 A dramatic cutback in limits is leaving wholesalers scrambling to fill excess and surplus lines programs for policyholders who face higher rates in a hardening market. While property lines were hit first and hardest due to hurricane activity over the past two years, casualty insurance buyers are also feeling the effect of the hardening market, say observers, who point to higher jury awards as a major factor. Executives meeting at the Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association’s Annual Marketplace in San Diego last week generally said they expect the market will remain hard for at least the next 18 months.