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International News

SoftBank-backed Lemonade plans to raise up to $286 million in IPO

The company, which started in New York in late 2016, is part of a growing number of young companies looking to shake up the insurance sector through a better use of technology.

The company says it has digitized the entire insurance process, replacing brokers and paperwork with algorithms and providing policies in as little as 90 seconds and claim payments in three minutes.

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Global investors including insurers urge Brazil to stop deforestation

The 25 European signatories include Norway’s Nordea Asset Management and the Church of England, which has a 2.8 billion pound ($3.5 billion) pension fund. The UK’s Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) is among the largest investors with 1.2 trillion pounds under management.
The letter does not spell out consequences if Brazil’s government does not take action, but seven European financial firms told Reuters last week they could divest from Brazil-linked holdings if environmental destruction continues. Many of those firms also signed the letter to embassies.

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CCRIF pays Guatemala $3.6 mn under its excess rainfall parametric insurance policy

CCRIF currently has 22 member governments of which three are from Central America – Nicaragua, Panama, and Guatemala. Since its inception in 2007, CCRIF has made a total of 43 payouts for 21 events (earthquakes, tropical cyclones, and excess rainfall events) to 14 member governments totalling US$155.8 million. CCRIF’s payouts are made within 14 days of an event, allowing governments to begin to address their most pressing needs and close the liquidity gap.

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Nikhil Rathi appointed as Chief Executive of UK’s FCA

On 1 April 2013, the FCA became responsible for the conduct supervision of all regulated financial firms and the prudential supervision of those not supervised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).The FCA is the conduct regulator for the UK’s financial markets, over 59,000 financial services firms, and the prudential supervisor for 49,000 firms, setting specific standards for 19,000 firms.

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Insurers’ debt remains attractive to investors during COVID-19 uncertainty:S&P

Following the redemption of about $25 billion of debt between January and May 2020, the sector is set to refinance nearly $140 billion by the end of 2021 ($52 billion between June and December 2020, including about $23 billion of hybrids with upcoming call dates during this period). Half of this is due to hybrids reaching call dates and the remainder is debt coming to maturity. We recognize some insurers have already pre-financed upcoming calls or maturities,” said a S&P analysis. 

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