Gallagher has acquired a 65% stake in Swiss commercial broker Hesse & Partner AG and Hesse Consulting. Based in Zurich, Hesse specialises in bespoke risk and insurance for clients in industrial, manufacturing and construction, with a niche in the waste-to-energy sector. Hesse said its top team will remain in place, including chairman and founder Guido Hesse, and CEO Tanja Jung.…
Another example of Japanese and wider Asia-based capital’s desire to access European insurance and reinsurance markets came this week as Toa Re, the sole domestic Japanese reinsurance group, announced the launch of Toa Re Europe based in Zurich, Switzerland. The Japanese group said it would use the new platform to accelerate plans to offer capacity to third-party non-Japanese customers, as…
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…
Zurich Insurance Group saw P&C first-quarter premiums climb to $9.33bn from $8.92bn, up 5% in US dollars but down 1% on a like-for-like basis in local currencies. The firm said it is focused on profitability and on course to meet its 2019 targets, which include cost savings of $1.5bn following a restructuring of the group’s global corporate business. In US…
After a ‘lost decade’, premium growth should return to pre-crisis level, with 6% growth predicted in the next decade, according to Allianz Research. It also revealed that China will take over from the US as the biggest insurance market worldwide. Insurance markets to continue to recover in the future, said Allianz, pointing out that while global premium growth has disappointed…
Our annual european risk Frontiers survey of Europe’s leading risk managers, sponsored again by HDI Global, is this year being expanded to include a wider range of risk professionals by adding snap polls at industry events and online Q&As with our readers. This approach has already produced some interesting results that we believe will pose serious questions for the insurance…
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…
Swiss Re’s Corporate Solutions unit remains key to the reinsurer’s growth strategy, according to group CEO Christian Mumenthaler. He said the business unit, which posted a negative ROE of 32.2% and a 133.4% combined ratio for 2017, is well positioned to benefit from the expected market improvements. “The challenges Corporate Solutions faced in 2017 are being addressed to restore profitability.…