The heatwaves, droughts and forest fires currently affecting swathes of Europe will cost the agriculture sector billions of dollars with entire harvests lost in some cases, Munich Re warns. According to the reinsurer, the grain harvest in Germany is likely to be down more than 10% on the long-term average as a result of the hot and dry weather. Total…
Global catastrophes made June the most active month for natural disasters this year, with insurance claims led by more than $3bn of losses from eight recorded convective storms and flash floods in the US, according to Aon’s Impact Forecasting. Large hailstones, some the size of baseballs, and winds affected parts of the Rockies, Plains, midwest, southeast and northeast in the…
Global non-life premium growth has slowed, with an increase of 2.8% in 2017 to $2.23trn, compared to growth of 3.7% in 2016…
London, Moscow and Paris are the most exposed European cities to a set of 22 risks, with a combined $24.6bn of annual GDP – or a third of Europe’s total losses – under threat, according to new research from Lloyd’s and the University of Cambridge. The Lloyd’s City Risk Index finds that market crash, cybercrime and floods are the top…
Business resilience to risk and disruption is highest in Switzerland, followed by Luxembourg and Sweden, finds a global index of 130 countries and jurisdictions published by FM Global. However, European countries have deteriorated when it comes to cyber resilience. Myanmar, Nigeria and Madagascar were the bottom three ranked countries in the overall index. Based on 12 measures of resilience across…
Global commercial insurance rates have risen for the second consecutive quarter, up 0.9% on average, driven by increases in property business and finpro lines, according to Marsh. However, overall pricing continues to fall in continental Europe, even though the rate of decline slowed again, the broker’s global insurance market index shows. The rise in global commercial insurance pricing was driven by…
Fines under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will only be insurable in two European countries, according to analysis by Aon and law firm DLA Piper. In 20 of the 30 countries analysed, fines – which could be as high as €20m or 4% of a group’s global turnover – will not be insurable. Only companies in Finland and…
The most complex nation in terms of financial compliance is China, according to the latest Financial Complexity Index 2018 from TMF Group, largely driven by the continued embedding of the Golden Tax System, which aims to introduce stricter monitoring and enhanced data sorting and transparency. The Cayman Islands was the least complex jurisdiction out of the 94 jurisdictions covered by…
The Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic has released an amended draft Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) legislation, which changes the initial draft IPT Act from January 2018. The Act sees the transition from the current non-life insurance levy to an IPT. According to Sovos FiscalReps, which recently met with the Slovakian Tax Office, life insurance will not be subject…
RENOMIA, an independent corporate and employee benefits insurance broker that operates in central and eastern Europe (CEE), has acquired a stake in Croatian broker DPS International. DPS International has been the Croatian partner in the Czech-based brokering firm’s franchise network RENOMIA European Partners, which operates in 30 countries across the CEE region, since 2016. This acquisition makes Croatia the seventh…