Category:

Eco/Invest/Demography

Covid-19: AIA Singapore invests more than S$5 million to support employees, local workforce and the wider community

Wong Sze Keed, Chief Executive Officer of AIA Singapore, said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the important role insurers play in society. It is a chance for life insurers like us to show Singaporeans that we care about their holistic wellness and safeguarding every aspect of their health and wellbeing when they need it the most. We have taken it upon ourselves to find new and timely ways to put our people–our employees, insurance representatives, customers and the wider Singapore community — first by providing them with peace of mind whilst living amid this uncertainty. We will continue to honour this commitment in 2021, delivering on our promise of enabling healthier, longer, better lives.”

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Ransomware attacks on the rise even as cyber insurers scale back

Ransomware attacks typically involve the infection of computers with malicious software, often downloaded by clicking on seemingly innocuous links in emails or other website pop-ups and leaving users locked out of their systems, with the demand of a ransom to be paid to restore computer functions.
Paul Bantick, Beazley’s global head of cyber and technology, said that ransomware attackers were demanding more money than in the past and had also become more creative in ways in which they sought to extort money.

“COVID-19, coronavirus, vaccines, all these things, they have enabled people to target organizations,” Bantick said.

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Verdict in the first US Coronavirus Business Interruption Trial to set the tone for more than 1,300 other lawsuits against insurers

Overall, the industry could face at least $100 billion in total underwriting losses from the pandemic, Lloyd’s executives predicted earlier this year. The industry has been on a winning streak so far, persuading judges to throw out more than four times as many business-interruption suits as they’ve allowed to proceed, according to Baker’s analysis.

Lawsuits over lost-revenue claims have been filed by all sorts of businesses, from the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons and the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets to hair salons and doctor’s practices. The stakes for the insurance industry have escalated as more cases are filed. In the second quarter — after the initial shutdowns — Chubb Ltd. reported $1.16 billion in Covid-19 losses.

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Dutch court case claims Shell’s operations violate human rights

The case brought by the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth, Milieudefensie, links the oil major’s stance on climate change with human rights. The ruling will also have implications for Shell’s European peers as pressure mounts on polluting energy companies to step up the fight against global warming.

Over two weeks of court proceedings, lawyers for Milieudefensie have argued that Shell is violating human rights by extracting fossil fuels and undermining the Paris Agreement’s aim of keeping temperature rises below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Shell says it’s playing its part in addressing climate change, which can only be tackled through collaboration and not court action.

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