Intelligent Insurer News

French reinsurer SCOR has returned to the London market for its latest $250 million catastrophe bond to protect itself against losses from named storms and earthquakes in the US and Canada, and windstorms in Europe.

Tasker Insurance Group (TIG) has acquired specialist broker Hobbs Broking (Hobbs Associates) as part of strategy to further accelerate its growth plans.

Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company (UPCIC) has expanded the top of its reinsurance tower for a single Florida event to $3.28 billion (an increase of $134 million) as part of Universal Insurance Holdings’ 2019-2020 reinsurance programmes, effective June 1, 2019.

Hive Aero, a managing general agency (MGA) specialising in aviation hull war insurance, has expanded into underwriting excess third-party aviation war liabilities (AVN52) with $47.5 million capacity for 2019.

Risk management is no longer an isolated backroom function; it has become more of a core part of businesses and the expectations of risk professionals have risen as a result, Drew Hart, risk manager Europe for Marriott International, told Airmic Today.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has launched a new British Standard, developed with the support of the World Bank, UNISDR, UN Habitat, OECD and representatives from UK cities, designed to help reinforce cities’ resilience to rapid urban expansion.

Risk professionals are continuously having to reinvent themselves in order to address today’s challenges, and part of that is achieved by promoting greater diversity within an organisation, in terms of both background and expertise.

Insurers are guilty of spending too much time navel-gazing rather than thinking about customers. This, argues Stuart Sutherland, Liberty Specialty Markets’ head of casualty, has to change.

The Airmic conference organisers have devised an innovative way to garner opinions from attendees at the annual event in Harrogate this week: installing a coin voting booth that delegates will be encouraged to use during the event to inform the organisers of their sentiments on some key issues.

“We fired a gun last year with the publication of our Roads to Revolution report; this year, it will be interesting to see how everyone responds to that call to action and what solutions people are able to bring to the table.

As global, interconnected risk becomes a reality, reputational risk is rising and business confidence is on the slide, according to a new survey by CNA Hardy.

Organisations are increasingly looking at ways to get more value out of their captive insurance vehicles, whether that be through diversifying their portfolios in areas such as third-party risk and cyber, or simply retaining more risk.

Airmic will today (Monday, June 3) launch its third flagship Risk Leadership Programme, in partnership with Cass Business School, for Airmic members.

A new property risk product that uses satellite imagery to assess the condition and location of properties has been launched by Geospatial Insight at this year’s Airmic conference.

William Dubinsky, managing director & head of ILS at Willis Towers Watson Securities, takes a look at model clarity and other issues facing the ILS market.

Allianz is acquiring the remaining 51 percent of Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society's (LV='s) general insurance business that it does not already own, for up to £578 million, and taking full owndership of Legal & General Insurance for £242 million, to become the second largest general insurer in the UK.

HDI Global Specialty SE, a new specialty lines insurer created from merging the specialty lines activities of Hannover Re and HDI Global, has appointed Karen Frazer to its London-based US delegated authority underwriting team.

Re/insurance broker Aon has entered into a commercial partnership with insurtech start-up CoverWallet, an online platform helping small businesses to understand, buy and manage insurance, in Australia.

Aspen Re president and chief underwriting officer and managing director of the Americas, Emil Issavi, is leaving the re/insurer to join specialty insurance services business Ryan Specialty Group (RSG).

Cat bonds protecting sovereign risk present a relatively simple solution for governments and investors, but they are not free from complexities. The greatest of these is the design of the trigger, according to Clive O’Connell, partner, head of insurance and reinsurance at McCarthy Denning.