AXA XL has appointed Bruno Laval as chief distribution officer for Asia and Europe, and regional manager of European markets, under its new regional model. The firm has also named a new chief underwriting officer for the region and appointed heads in France, Germany, Switzerland and Asia-Pacific. Mr Laval, who was previously AXA XL Insurance’s regional manager for Europe, will…
Central and eastern European (CEE) countries are looking increasingly like beneficiaries of the impact of Covid-19 on global trade and supply chains, as European Union companies seek to bring their sources of supply closer to home. But companies in the CEE cannot rely on cheaper labour alone to take advantage of any post-pandemic supply chain shift. They will need to…
The European Union’s efforts to tackle rising protectionism worldwide managed to generate some €8bn in additional exports during 2019. But trade barriers continue to grow and threaten the recovery from Covid-19, warns the EC. The Commission’s annual Trade and Investment Barriers report, published this week, reveals some notable successes in tackling protectionism, particularly in the food sector. Coordinated efforts by the…
The European Commission has approved, under EU state aid rules, a French guarantee scheme for small and midsize companies with export activities that are affected by the coronavirus outbreak. It is thought the scheme will mobilise some €200m. This follows approval given by the EC for a guarantee scheme that will be managed by the Czech export credit agency EGAP,…
RMS has launched a new model for convective storms in Europe, which caused €12bn of insured losses between 2013 and 2019. The model covers a range of severe convective storm events, including localised tornadoes and hailstorms. It models property and motor policy losses. The European Severe Convective Storm High Definition Model covers 17 countries where the risk of severe convective…
Bottlenecks in European and global supply chains caused by the Covid-19 pandemic will significantly deepen the economic crisis faced by EU nations and plunge the bloc into a worse recession than in 2009, according to Oxford Economics, the UK-based global forecasting and quantitative analysis firm. Its latest analysis finds that for the EU, intra-bloc trade is vital and shutdowns will…
The World Bank’s pandemic bonds, which could provide $132.5m of funds to countries within the International Development Association (IDA) and International Bank Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), will be triggered and paid out – but only if reported cases of coronavirus continue to escalate rapidly in the developing world, as cases in China and Europe show welcome signs of plateauing. Credit…
Deutsche Bank has revealed that it may ask its German staff to cut their hours and take government money instead, as the loss-making German bank attempts to struggle through the coronavirus crisis, according to news agency Reuters. Earlier this month, the bank said the impact of the coronavirus outbreak may affect its ability to meet its financial targets. Last year,…
The UK, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Romania are the European countries most at risk from the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) as a result of the outbreak in Italy, according to scenarios run by AIR Worldwide. It has also named the countries most at risk from the secondary outbreaks in South Korea and Iran. Using models to project…
Europe’s data protection regulators have shown wide differences in General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) fines and been inconsistent in dealing with cyber incidents, according to analysis from Beazley. In its latest Breach Insights article, Beazley says there has been little consistency so far even though the same rules apply across Europe. Beazley notes that although GDPR regulatory activity has picked up,…