World Insurance Report

Caroline Worboys, managing director of Callcredit Marketing Solutions, explains how trend mapping and understanding how the economy is influencing consumers across industry sectors provides valuable insight for European insurers looking to engage their customers in a fast changing marketplace

The cost of private health cover in Venezuela is estimated to have risen by 70%, exceeding the limits of many policies

International insurers and reinsurers based in Ireland saw their premium income grow to record levels in 2008, according to DIMA, the association which represents them. Based on a survey of its members, DIMA reports gross premium income of..

Despite the decline in the market’s life income in 2008, the number of life policies in force rose by 1.6% to over 3 million

Late reports 10.9, mid air collision, fatality US: two small aircraft collided in mid-air about 40 miles south of Phoenix, sending one crashing to the ground and killing a student pilot from China who was training to fly commercial aircraft. The..

The historically profitable New Zealand market has been hit by what one observer describes as a “perfect storm”. Over the last two years there has been an upsurge in severe weather events and an increase in the number of total loss fire claims affecting the household and food processing sectors. These factors have helped push the market’s combined ratio up from 93.3% in 2006 to 102.8% in 2008. New Zealand used to have the highest interest rates in the developed world but as a result of the economic recession, the official cash rate has been reduced six times in the last 12 months. Insurers’ investment earnings have therefore been dramatically reduced. However, the domestic household market, which has the most chronic loss problems, has been hardening for the last three years even though rates are widely perceived to be increasing so slowly that only the most agile and best prepared insurers are able to benefit from this trend

The insurer’s stake in PZU will be reduced to below 13% after years of legal battles with the Polish state

An unnamed domestic company is expected to take a stake in the state-owned insurer

The reinsurer will buy €1bn of shares • Groupama merges Romanian units • ING sells majority stake in Australian business

Willis Group Holdings has completed the purchase of 100% of the share capital of Argentinean businesses Herzfeld Willis S A and Willis S A, a reinsurance operation. The business will be renamed as a single unit: Willis Argentina S.A. Terms of the..

Aon Poland has bought Dom Brokerski Progres Sa and Progres Services Sp z o o for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition creates the largest insurance brokerage in Poland. Progres is one of the largest brokerages specialising in motor insurance in the..

US insurers’ $12bn in overall capital losses for the first half of this year is the result of write-downs on impaired investments

It is unlikely that Munich Re would invest in VHI. A more likely scenario is that the German reinsurance giant would assist the company through reinsurance, as it did with Vivas. VHI does not currently purchase any reinsurance

International insurers and reinsurers based in Ireland saw their premium income grow to record levels in 2008, according to DIMA, the association which represents them. Based on a survey of its members, DIMA reports gross premium income of $26.2bn..

The fact that Arch Capital, unlike many of its peer group, managed to emerge from 2008 with not only a positive net result (albeit greatly diminished compared with the previous year) but also with a positive underwriting result, is largely down to the way in which the group has diversified its business over the last five years in terms of the extent of its involvement in the primary insurance and reinsurance markets of the US and Europe. However, its increased loss experience in 2008 has prompted group to reconfigure its US exposures, on both the primary insurance and reinsurance sides, and to increase its involvement, particularly on the reinsurance side, in Europe and other regions such as the Middle East

The financial crisis has served to elevate enterprise-wide risk management (ERM) to the level of the imperative. According to Dan Glaser, chairman and chief executive of insurance group, Marsh Inc, the financial crisis has pushed companies into an era of strategic capital management which has to be embedded in the culture and practices of the entire organisation, at all levels. Here, in an edited extract from his keynote address to the 44th Annual Marine Insurance Seminar in Houston, Mr. Glaser issued a call to the insurance industry for ingenuity, discipline and vigour to meet the emerging needs of clients in the energy sector. Energy companies, he argued, have to navigate increasingly complex challenges, including fallout from the global economic crisis, energy price volatility, and natural catastrophe risks. The insurance industry has all sorts of tools and data to mitigate operational risks and natural hazards. While this is valuable, there may be insufficient focus on what is becoming more daunting for energy companies: dealing with uncertainty surrounding political, regulatory, and economic trends — and planning for the unexpected

Despite reserve increases and suffering the worst motor losses in the market, Quinn Insurance was still the most profitable non-life underwriter in Ireland in 2008

The cost of federal flood policies in the US will rise by an average of 8% nationally as part of changes to the National Flood Insurance Programme. Deductibles will also change: homeowners in high flood risk areas with $500 and $1,000 deductibles..

One of the purposes of incorporation is to absorb and contain liability within the corporate shell: the so-called corporate veil, behind which directors used to feel reasonably safe. However, a director can in certain circumstances be personally liable to the company, its liquidator, its shareholders, third parties and any of its regulators, such as the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Health and Safety Executive, Information Commissioner, Pensions Regulator or Office of Fair Trading. Directors may also incur considerable expense in defending claims, investigations or even extradition and, in addition to the recent potential extension of litigation by derivative action, may face claims arising out of the tougher regulation brought into force as a result of the recession. Even when the director is convinced that the allegations made are completely unfounded, the costs of defending their position can be extremely high, a fact gruesomely appreciated by the departed directors of Equitable Life prior to the abandonment of all claims against them by the incoming board, apparently after £20m in defence costs are rumoured to have been incurred. Here, Jeremy Hill, partner, and Christopher Henley, international counsel, at law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, highlight some of the main areas in which careful judgment should be exercised by a director, or, more usually, the company secretary overseeing cover for the board. It should be remembered that D&O policy wordings are complex and the smallest error could result in a large gap in coverage.

The Generali Group is to merge its Spanish subsidiaries Estrella Seguros and Vitalicio Seguros to form Generali Espana SA de Seguros y Reaseguros. Operations under the new name are expected to start by the middle of next year. The merged company..

An earthquake recording a magnitude of 8.0 struck in the Samoa Islands region, just south of Samoa’s capital, Apia. The impact was felt in Samoa itself and American Samoa, a nearby US territory. The earthquake triggered a series of tsunamis..

Legislative and regulatory activity impacting the insurance industry in 2009 has increased considerably when compared to the previous two years, according to a research report released by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ Insurance Compliance..

For the two weeks ending 1st October, insurance and reinsurance stocks tracked by WIR for the most part sustained the steady gains of the previous two or three periods. Although the outlook for the global economy in general, and the US economy in..