Category:

International News

Number of people with dementia set to jump 40% to 78 mln by 2030 -WHO

Only one in four countries has a national policy in place to support dementia patients and their families, it said, urging governments to step up to the public health challenge.

“Dementia robs millions of people of their memories, independence and dignity, but it also robs the rest of us of the people we know and love,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.

read more

Munich Re raises €1bn green bond

Christoph Jurecka, chief financial officer(CFO), Munich Re , said climate protection is an integral part of our Ambition 2025 Group strategy.

“By issuing a green bond, we have once again leveraged the capital markets to fund green investments. We strengthen our capital base, which gives us the financial flexibility to take advantage of current growth opportunities,” he said.

read more

Swiss Re creates a central cyber underwriting team,John Coletti to head Global Cyber

With his expertise, John Coletti will help Swiss Re to address the complex nature of cyber risk, including important industry issues such as ransomware and risk aggregation. John Coletti will report into Gregory Schiffer, Head of Global Specialty, and will be responsible for Swiss Re’s global cyber business, which includes portfolio ownership, global underwriting activities as well as cyber product development.

read more

Singapore rolls out SPAC rules as global scrutiny rises

A spokesperson from the Monetary Authority of Singapore said the local rules position SGX “as a regional first-mover in serving Asia’s fast-growing new tech and new economy companies’ financing needs,” while providing safeguards for investors.
In other markets, Hong Kong and Indonesia are taking tentative steps for potential SPAC listings, while Britain has eased rules. But such investment vehicles are peaking in popularity in the United States as regulators there clamp down on SPACs after a listing frenzy.

read more

WhatsApp fined $266 mn by Irish regulator over data transparency breaches

Under the three-year-old GDPR law, authorities have powers to fine companies as much as 4% of their annual sales. The rules put watchdogs based in a company’s chosen EU hub in charge of supervising them. But the Irish regulator, which has at least 28 privacy probes open targeting tech giants such as Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, has faced mounting criticism for taking too long to wrap up its cases.

read more

Weather disasters becoming more frequent and costly, UN agency says

“Thanks to our early warning service improvement we have been able to have a decrease of the casualties at these kind of events, but the bad news is that the economic losses have been growing very rapidly and this growth is supposed to continue,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told a press conference.

“We are going to see more climatic extreme because of climate change and this negative trend in climate will continue for the coming decades,” he said.

read more

More than 4 billion people still lack any social protection, ILO report

Social protection includes access to health care and income security, particularly in relation to old age, unemployment, sickness, disability, work injury, maternity or loss of a main income earner, as well as for families with children.
There are significant regional inequalities in social protection. Europe and Central Asia have the highest rates of coverage, with 84 per cent of people being covered by at least one benefit.

The Americas are also above the global average, with 64.3 per cent. Asia and the Pacific (44 per cent), the Arab States (40 per cent) and Africa (17.4 per cent) have marked coverage gaps.

Government spending on social protection also varies significantly. On average, countries spend 12.8 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on social protection (excluding health), however high-income countries spend 16.4 per cent and low-income countries only 1.1 per cent of their GDP on social protection.

read more

Total global reinsurance capacity rises 7% to $ 517 billion in 2020, Munich Re regains top ranking: AM Best

From Asia, there are three reinsurers which are part of top 15 global reinsurers. They are China Re, Korea Re and India’s state owned GIC Re(13), with a global premium of $6,481 billion in 2020.  
Although the global reinsurance industry has been able to absorb the exceptional shock from the COVID-19 pandemic, perils that are becoming more complex and interrelated highlight the need for innovation to cover unmodeled risks as they emerge, and traditional risks as they evolve, according to the special report.

read more