Beazley has appointed two financial lines underwriters for continental Europe. Based in Barcelona, Francisco Alcaide joins Beazley from Hiscox where he worked in Spain as senior underwriter in the professional risks team. Mr Alcaide will launch Beazley’s e-trading platform, MyBeazley, for specialty products in Spain. Alexander van Nierop will also be based in Barcelona and joins Beazley from Aon in…
Lloyd’s insurer Beazley is expanding its Asian insurance offering via a linkup with Hong Kong-based Pegasus Underwriting for financial lines coverage. Pegasus, a Lloyd’s coverholder, will see its financial lines coverage across professional indemnity, directors and officers, cyber and medical malpractice supported by extra capacity from Beazley. The combination of Pegasus’s market knowledge and regional broking relationships with Beazley’s global…
Singapore-based insurer Etiqa has launched an online platform for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to buy commercial insurance. The Business Owners Super Suite (BOSS) enables SMEs to engage in what Etiqa claims is a wholly automated or ‘straight-through’ purchasing process. Underinsurance and an absence of formal risk management among SMEs is one of the biggest problems in the Asian commercial…
The African Development Bank Group has approved a $14.12m facility to support Nigeria’s membership of the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI). The deal, organised through its trade finance operations, is a critical and mandatory step to enable ATI to commence its operations in Nigeria, according to the bank. Nigeria, as Africa’s largest economy, joins 14 other African countries that have…
Newly created HDI Global Specialty has formally opened for business after merging the specialty lines of Talanx-owned HDI Global and Hannover Re…
Australia-based specialty insurer POP Insurance has teamed up with Allianz Global Corporate Specialty (AGCS) to launch an insurance product covering merger and acquisition exposure in Asia Pacific. Fusion Specialty M&A MGA, which will be based in Sydney, will provide a number of transactional insurance services including warranty and indemnity (W&I), tax opinion and contingent liability. According to POP and Fusion…
The cost of directors and officers (D&O) insurance is set to rise as insurers react to growing exposures and claims, with possible coverage restrictions on the horizon, brokers and insurers warn…
With the European Parliament due to vote on EU-wide class action proposals in January, just months after Germany introduced collective redress for consumers, companies and their directors face a growing threat from class action litigation in Europe. This year has seen some notable strides towards class action culture in Europe, albeit still far from the excesses associated with the US.…
Marsh has named key UK leaders of its future Marsh JLT Specialty business, which will be formed when Marsh & McLennan Companies acquires JLT. Along with a raft of other global and European appointments, Marsh announced earlier this week that Chris Lay will remain CEO of Marsh UK and Ireland, while Paul Moody will become head of Marsh-JLT Specialty for…
Marsh has finalised more executive appointments ahead of its JLT acquisition, with the latest round of announcements covering regional, specialty and placement teams…