Category:

Eco/Invest/Demography

Moderna to ask US, European regulators to OK its vaccine for emergency use

Moderna created its shots with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and already had a hint they were working, but said it got the final needed results over the weekend that suggest the vaccine is more than 94% effective.
Moderna is just behind Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech in seeking to begin vaccinations in the U.S. in December. Across the Atlantic, British regulators also are assessing the Pfizer shot and another from AstraZeneca.

read more

Swiss Re to set up new fund for institutional and designated investors to access Nat Cat biz

Martin Bisping, CEO of Swiss Re Insurance-Linked Investment Management  said: “This new fund will open a unique opportunity for investors to invest in the same book of business as Swiss Re, benefitting from Swiss Re’s global reach, client access, risk knowledge and underwriting.“

read more

Pandemic Motors: Europeans snap up old cars to avoid public transport

The surge in interest in used cars is neither good news for struggling mass transit networks nor the environment as dirty old cars appear to be more in demand than new electric vehicles.

In the longer term, however, the shift away from public transport towards “individual mobility” in the pandemic era is expected to help carmakers, hit by a 27% slump in new vehicle sales across Europe in the first 10 months of 2020.

read more

Insurers winning most, but not all, Covid-19 business interruption lawsuits

The stakes are high for thousands of businesses. The outbreak has led to a surge in U.S. bankruptcies, including rental-car company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. Century 21 Stores said it couldn’t survive after its insurer denied its business-interruption claim.

But the pandemic is also squeezing insurers. In the second quarter — after the initial shutdowns — Chubb Ltd. reported $1.16 billion in Covid-19 losses. Munich Re said this month coronavirus losses keep growing. Overall, the industry could face at least $100 billion in total underwriting losses from the pandemic, Lloyd’s of London predicted in May.

read more