Gloria Gonzalez

7/31/2018 6:58:00 AM

Source: Business Insurance

The National Flood Insurance Program is in limbo, on the cusp of either another expiration or short-term extension without any reforms to the debt-ridden program, which would kick the issue down the road for a lame-duck Congress to navigate.

The latest extension debate has unveiled some major political fault lines, with a key House member openly taking the Senate to task for its inaction on the program and stakeholders taking diverging positions on short-term extension bills.

The NFIP will expire Tuesday if Congress does not authorize an extension of the program, meaning that new policies cannot be written after that date and existing policies cannot be renewed.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a straight extension of the program to Nov. 30 on a 366-52 vote Wednesday. The bill now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to be moved under unanimous consent procedures, although one senator can block such approval.

Thomson Reuters

7/31/2018 10:33:00 AM

Source: Business Insurance

(Reuters) — Lloyd’s of London is reviewing all aspects of its business, including its centuries-old structure, to ensure it is cost-competitive and responsive to both clients and members, especially after Britain leaves the EU, industry sources said.

The review, coming after a £2 billion ($2.64 billion) loss last year and the news in June that CEO Inga Beale will step down, goes to the core of the institution’s hybrid personality, senior insurers and other officials in London’s financial services sector said.

Lloyd’s has been holding board and other internal meetings and separate discussions with broader market participants on the best way forward, the officials said. Precise details of the review have not been disclosed, they said.

7/30/2018 5:36:00 AM

A report by Thomson Reuters Legal Business found that corporate fines for health and safety breaches in the United Kingdom grew by almost 20% to more than £57 million ($75 million) in the year ended February 2017, City A.M. reported. The U.K.’s Sentencing Council introduced tougher health and safety guidelines in February 2016 focusing on management culpability for risk or actual harm. The report found that the number of fines issued increased 18% during the first full year of implementation. The average value of each fine grew over a third to £311,343.

Source: Business Insurance

7/30/2018 5:35:00 AM

Typhoon Jongdari struck the main island of Kyushu and western parts of Honshu in Japan on July 29 disrupting transport in the region, The Japan Times reported citing Kyodo News. Japan Airlines Co. Ltd. and All Nippon Airways Co Ltd. canceled several flights from Tokyo to western Japan. The typhoon also forced railway operators including West Japan Railway Co. to either delay or halt services in the region.

Source: Business Insurance

7/30/2018 5:33:00 AM

John Nelson, former chairman of Lloyd’s of London, said that Brexit is likely to disrupt physical movement of goods for manufacturing, food and pharmaceuticals in the region, Thisismoney.co.uk reported citing Financial Times. Mr. Nelson called on local businesses to make logistic plans to avoid supply chain disruptions post Brexit. Nearly 45% of the U.K.’s trade is conducted with the European Union, he added.

Source: Business Insurance

7/25/2018 6:59:00 AM

A survey by U.S.-based consultancy firm CrowdSource found that two-thirds of organizations across the world experienced a software supply chain attack in the past 12 months, Chain Store Age reported. The survey found that the average cost of a software supply chain cyber attack exceeded $1 million. More than 70% of IT professionals said that their organization does not always hold external suppliers to in-house security standards.

Source: Business Insurance

7/25/2018 7:04:00 AM

Villagers evacuate after the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed in Attapeu province, Laos./ ABC Laos News/Handout via REUTERS

An under-construction hydroelectric dam burst in Attapeu Province on July 23 inundating several villages in southeastern Laos, ABC News reported citing media sources. The dam is 90% owned by Thailand-based Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Public Company and being built by a group of South Korean companies including SK Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd. The dam was 90% complete and scheduled to start operations next year.

Source: Business Insurance

Matthew Lerner

7/10/2018 12:17:00 PM

U.S. hailstorms in June could cost insurers more than $3 billion, according to the latest catastrophe report released Tuesday by Aon P.L.C.’s Impact Forecasting unit.

Hail and damaging straight-line winds rocked areas in the Rockies, Plains, Midwest, Southeast, and the Northeast, the report said, with Colorado among the hardest hit as separate major hailstorms struck the metro areas of Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs.

Combined economic losses from all the events are expected to approach $4 billion, with insurers “poised to cover more than $3 billion of the economic cost,” Impact Forecasting said in its Global Catastrophe Recap June 2018 report.

Globally, a magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit Japan’s Osaka Prefecture on June 18, destroying or damaging nearly 30,000 structures. Some 78,838 claims had already been filed with payouts listed at 13.7 billion yen ($125 million), according to the General Insurance Association of Japan.

“Overall economic losses will be much higher,” Impact said of the Osaka earthquake in its report.

China’s Yangtze River Basin saw flooding from seasonal rainfall and convective storms with aggregate seasonal damages now estimated by China’s National Commission for Disaster Reduction at more than $1 billion as Tropical Storm Ewiniar brought another $570 million of estimated economic losses to China and Vietnam, the report said.

Severe weather including wind and hail across Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Austria and elsewhere caused insured and economic losses “expected to reach” into the tens of millions of dollars, the report said.

“June was one of the most active months thus far in 2018 for natural disasters,” Michal Lorinc, a Slovak Republic-based analyst within Impact Forecasting’s Catastrophe Insight team, said in a statement issued with the report. “A plethora of major events occurred in many regions around the world during the month — notably in the United States, Japan, China and Europe — which has led to a multibillion-dollar economic toll.”

Rob Lenihan

7/11/2018 4:01:00 AM

Munich Re Belgium European Union France Germany United Kingdom Catastrophes More +

Losses from natural disasters were significantly lower in the first half of the year, Munich Reinsurance Co. said in a report released Wednesday, but individual events caused high losses in specific areas.

Insured losses for the first half of 2018 totaled about $17 billion, Munich Re said in a statement, down from $25.5 billion during the same period last year. However, this year’s total essentially matched the average of $17.5 billion for the first six months over the last 30 years.

The overall losses for the period were $33 billion, roughly half the previous year’s figure of $65 billion and just under half of the price-adjusted average for the last 30 years of $68.3 billion.

Munich Re said about 3,000 people died in natural disasters in the first half of 2018, down from 5,540 in the year-ago period.

However, Munich Re noted that the second half of the year usually brings higher losses, such as in 2017 when hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria pushed overall losses for the year to $340 billion.

The first half of the year was marked by windstorms and cold weather in Europe and North America. The most destructive event was Storm Friederike, which swept across the United Kingdom, northern France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany in mid-January.

Thousands of buildings and motor vehicles were damaged and long-distance train travel in Germany was disrupted after uprooted trees had torn down the overhead lines in many places.

Overall losses totaled $2.7 billion, of which $2.1 billion were insured, reflecting the high insurance density of windstorm coverage in Europe. Roughly two-thirds of the losses occurred in Germany, Munich Re said.

North America was hit by several widespread snowstorms, or Nor’easters, from the end of February to mid-March. The most destructive event was a blizzard in the first week of March, which caused overall losses of $2.2 billion, of which $1.6 billion was insured.

In total, Munich Re said, winter losses in Europe came to $4.8 billion, of which $3.6 billion was insured. The winter in North America caused overall losses in the first half of the year totaling $3.8 billion and insured losses of $2.7 billion.

In Guatemala, more than 100 people were killed, with many more still missing, after the volcano Fuego erupted in June.

Munich Re Board Member Torsten Jeworrek said in a statement that “looking at a short timespan may distort the true picture.”

“The most important thing is to understand the long-term developments,” he said. “That is why we must continue to make every effort to understand the background to natural disasters and provide safeguards against them in the form of intelligent prevention measures.”

Insurance-linked securities players are likely to transact at least two deals using the U.K.’s new ILS regulatory regime, Artemis.bm reports citing sources. The transactions are likely to include a catastrophe bond and a collateralized reinsurance deal. The cat bond deal is likely to be completed this year while one of the transactions could be linked to a Lloyd’s of London syndicate, the sources said.

Business Insurance

6/18/2018 6:08:00 AM