11/21/2018 5:27:00 AM

Source: Business Insurance

Swiss Re Ltd. said that there is a $500 billion global property and mortality risks protection gap, which “signals the existing high level of unprotected risks and significant growth potential for insurers,” Artemis reports. Swiss Re also said that global premiums are expected to grow by around 3% per year in 2019 and 2020, with Asia anticipated to experience 9% growth in premiums.

Thomson Reuters

11/13/2018 1:12:00 PM

Source: Business Insurance

(Reuters) — RSA Insurance Group PLC plans to pull out of several international business lines run out of London that it says are unlikely to produce the returns the British insurer is seeking following a September profit warning.

Closing international construction, international freight and fixed price marine protection and indemnity insurance was part of efforts to streamline international exposure and improve underwriting, pricing accuracy and risk management, RSA said.

The decision to ditch the businesses followed RSA’s assessment that they were “unlikely to satisfy the Group’s profitability requirements in the foreseeable future.”

It mirrors similar action by rivals also adapting to tough market conditions, including brokers Beazley PLC and Hiscox Ltd.

RSA said it would instead focus instead on international hull, international cargo and transportation, international property and international engineering and renewable energy.

International marine cargo and international marine transportation would be restructured into a single unit under new leadership and exposures would be cut “significantly” to focus on areas where sustained profitability could be achieved.

RSA said it expected to reduce premiums written through the London Market by around a third year on year in 2019.

Matthew Lerner

11/14/2018 10:22:00 AM

Source: Business Insurance

Insured wildfire losses in California could be approaching record levels, according to a briefing Wednesday from A.M. Best Co. Inc.

The number of acres burned in 2018 is already nearly double the 2017 total, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and insured losses stemming from the Northern California Carr Fire earlier this year could reach $2.0 billion, Oldwick, New Jersey-based Best said in the briefing.

The Camp Fire in Butte County has now burned 130,000 acres and is 35% contained, while the Woolsey Fire in Ventura and Los Angeles counties has burned 97,620 acres and is 47% contained, according to the most recent data available on the Cal Fire website Wednesday.

Best noted that it is early but warned losses could be historic.

Mark A. Hofmann

11/14/2018 10:50:00 AM

Source: Business Insurance

Reinsurance rates could stabilize or increase at the Jan. 1, 2019, renewals, according to a report released by Morgan Stanley on Wednesday.

The report — State of the Industry-Fall 2018: Rising Losses; Will Pricing Follow? — noted that after last year’s record catastrophe losses, property catastrophe reinsurance pricing improved “slightly” in 2018. The authors added, however, that their meetings at Monte Carlo indicated that reinsurance pricing at the Jan. 1 renewals would be flat to 5% lower.

The report said, however, that a combination of factors could change that outlook. It said recent catastrophes including Hurricane Michael and the ongoing California wildfires, losses in the alternative markets, pullbacks from Lloyd’s of London and increasing demand for reinsurance “could stabilize or improve” reinsurance rates at the Jan. 1 renewals.

11/15/2018 4:32:00 AM

Source: Business Insurance

Switzerland-based Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology said that the Campi Flegrei volcanic region in southern Italy is likely to erupt and poses risks to the city of Naples, Cosmos reported. British and Italian researchers had earlier said that the region, which is mostly underwater and contains 24 craters, was “evolving towards conditions more favorable to eruption.”

11/15/2018 4:31:00 AM

Source: Buisiness Insurance

U.K.-based International Accounting Standards Board has called for a one-year delay until January 2022 to implement a new accounting rule aimed at increasing transparency in how insurers earn money, Reuters reported. The European insurance industry had earlier called for introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards 17 to be delayed until 2023 due to insufficient time to implement the standards properly.

11/15/2018 4:38:00 AM

Source: Business Insurance

French insurer Axa S.E. is including Brexit-related cover to its management liability insurance policies, Verdict.co.uk reported. The new product will cover Brexit-related claims under directors’ and officers’ liability and company legal liability policies.

11/15/2018 4:39:00 AM

Source: Business Insurance

The Federal Court of Australia has fined the director of real estate firm We Buy Houses $6 million Australia ($4 million) and the company AUD 12 million for breaching the country’s consumer laws, MyBusiness.com.au reported. The court banned Rick Otton from managing companies for 10 years for making false and misleading claims about property deals. The court also permanently banned Mr. Otton and We Buy Houses from future involvement in property transactions or investment in Australia.

11/15/2018 4:44:00 AM

Source: Business Insurance

The United Kingdom and the European Union have agreed on a deal that will give London’s financial firms including insurers only a basic level of access to the bloc’s markets post Brexit, Reuters reported. Under the proposed deal, U.K. financial firms’ access to the EU would be based on equivalence similar to Japanese and U.S. firms’ level of access. U.K.-based law firm Hogan Lovells said that the equivalence rules cover just a quarter of all EU financial services business with the United Kingdom.

Gloria Gonzalez

11/28/2017 9:00:00 AM

Source: Business Insurance

Pool Reinsurance Co. Ltd., the U.K. government-backed terrorism reinsurance backstop, will extend its cover to include material damage and direct business interruption caused by acts of terrorism using a cyber trigger, starting in April 2018.

The cover, which will exclude intangible assets, will be standard for all policyholders that purchase terrorism insurance from Pool Re members, London-based Pool Re said Tuesday in a statement.

The coverage extension is the culmination of more than two years of work and is based on a research study commissioned from the Centre for Risk Studies at University of Cambridge Judge Business School to further Pool Re’s understanding of the nature of the cyber terrorism threat.

The U.K. government gave preliminary approval for the expansion in coverage in September.

“We will continue to evolve our coverage, and today’s announcement is an effort to future-proof the scheme and to close a potential gap in coverage before it became apparent,” Pool Re Chief Executive Julian Enoizi said in the statement. “The threat from a cyber attack is evident, and businesses have become increasingly concerned about the extensive repercussions these types of attacks could have on them. This was a clear gap in our coverage which left businesses potentially exposed.”