Australian citizens and insurers are bracing themselves for another week of catastrophic losses as former Tropical Cyclone Esther tracks an unpredictable path across northern Australia and could re-intensify later in the week, according to the Bureau of Meteorology which described it as “a remarkable system”. Australia is still picking up the pieces of months of devastating bushfires that will cost…
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) posted a loss of €284m in 2019 and a combined ratio of 112.3%, as “disappointing” fourth-quarter reserve strengthening of €591m hit results. But Allianz said problems encountered by AGCS have also affected many of its competitors and are partly an industrial insurance issue following the long soft market. It therefore predicts that big price…
AXA XL says its new CEO, accelerating price rises and further de-risking will help boost profitability, after 2019 earning figures fell below expectations. AXA XL saw revenues increase 10% in 2019, helped by “extremely brisk” price rises. But the unit’s combined ratio stood at 101.5%, and the firm’s CFO Etienne Bouas-Laurent said €507m of underlying earnings were “slightly below” expectations…
Global insurers could benefit from a surge in demand for insurance linked to public-private partnerships (PPP) in Japan. Swiss Re estimates that growth in PPP schemes for public infrastructure could be worth nearly $1bn in annual premiums from 2018 to 2023. The broader adoption of PPP schemes in public assets comes in response to pressure building on stretched public finances…
The half-year results just published by two of Australia’s leading insurers – Suncorp and Insurance Australia Group (IAG) – show the immediate financial impact of the recent spate of natural catastrophes to hit the country. They also show the urgent need for the national emphasis to shift from damage repair and cleanup post-event to loss prevention, risk mitigation and management.…
Chubb has extended use of its incident reporting tool to excess casualty clients. Incident Alert was previously used by environmental and cyber clients but has been rolled out to excess casualty buyers as a complimentary addition. Chubb said the service can be used during a catastrophic event to identify response contractors, manage clean-up operations and mitigate potential liabilities and business…
The governments of Japan and Singapore, along with the World Bank, are reportedly developing a natural catastrophe protection programme for lower-income Asian countries that could be launched in the Spring of this year, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. According to the report, Myanmar and Laos will be the first to receive cover under the scheme to protect national infrastructure…
Commercial insurance pricing in Asia showed the highest increase in five years in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to Marsh’s quarterly Global Insurance Market Index. Double-digit increases in property premiums were, however, compensated by liability prices still falling by up to 10% in some Asian countries. The Pacific region had the largest composite pricing increase in the index at…
The commercial insurance market hardening accelerated across all regions in the final quarter of last year with average price increases of 6.6% in continental Europe and 13.7% in the UK, according to Marsh’s latest Global Insurance Market Index that also reports a tightening of capacity in certain product lines and parts of the world. As previously revealed during Marsh’s results…
The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), the body that represents the Australian insurance industry, has accused leading consumer group CHOICE of causing “unnecessary and unjustified fear” among householders about the validity of their household insurance coverage, in relation to the bushfires that have devastated the country in recent months. CHOICE has not accused the insurers of dodging claims yet. But…