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International News

Munich Re defends top global reinsurance ranking in 2019

China Re,only Asian reinsurer among the top 10  global reinsurer, with a total reinsurance premium of $ 13.31 billion has fallen one notch down to ninth position in 2019.However,another Asian major Korea Re with a global premium of $ 6.91 billion has improved its position by one notch to 12th from 13th in 2019
India’s GIC Re with a global premium of over $ 6.53 billion in 2019 has maintained its existing 14th position in the new list.
For the first quarter of 2020, Munich Re disclosed COVID-19 related loss of €800 million, mainly from event cancellation insurance, while Swiss Re said it was expecting a $476 million nonlife charge that mainly covers expected claims for canceled or postponed events. Allianz Group and Hannover Re announced estimated losses of €400 million and €220 million, respectively.
The novel coronavirus is expected to add to the upward pressure on reinsurance rates at the June 1 and July 1 renewals. Pandemic-related claims and the fall in market value of reinsurers’ investment portfolio are both expected to contribute.

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British watchdog enlists 8 insurers in pandemic test case of Business Interruption cover

“We expect the test case to provide guidance for the interpretation of many other business insurance policies that are not in the representative sample,” the FCA said.

The eight insurers asked to take part in the court case were Lloyd’s of London insurers Hiscox, Arch, Argenta and MS Amlin, as well as RSA, QBE, Zurich and Ecclesiastical, the FCA said in a statement.

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Hurricanes may cause more pain for pandemic-hit insurers

“What we’ve seen over the past couple of years is an increase of (storm) losses from a frequency and severity perspective,” said Susan Fallon, global head of Property at Zurich Insurance Group.

“There’s an expectation we will see increased rates.”

Lloyd’s of London this month forecast more than $100 billion in underwriting losses from the pandemic in 2020, with those losses coming before the hurricane season even gets going.

The specialist insurance market said the pandemic losses were similar in size to the loss year of 2005 – when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans – and 2017 – when Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria hit Florida, Puerto Rico and Texas.

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Workplace and supply chain risks from COVID-19 having significant impact on power sector

Graham Knight, Head of Global Natural Resources, Willis Towers Watson, said: “In these unprecedented and uncertain times, the issue of COVID-19 remained uppermost in all our minds as the power industry and their stakeholders begin to analyse the effects on their balance sheets and on their overall risk landscape.  Willis Towers Watson is a global leader when it comes to helping power companies address these growing regulatory, investor, employee and operating pressures through improved offerings that combine the analytics, advice and transactional expertise from across the company.”

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Insurers’ business interruption U-turn could lead to significant uptake in product,says GlobalData

Ben Carey-Evans, Insurance Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, said “This is a significant turnaround for the industry, which had up to this point been stating that claims were not valid because of pandemic exclusions.In reality, there was no positive outlook for insurers in this dispute. Paying out will cost millions in claims as businesses around the country have been shut down or severely restricted during lockdown. However, not paying out would also have led to reduced consumer trust, with many business owners likely to avoid taking out any form of business interruption insurance in the future.

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dacadoo and T&D Holdings collaborates for digital insurance in Japan

T&D has positioned the digital insurance business as one of the newly focused business areas in its medium-term management plan “Try & Discover 2021 – Creation of Shared Value –”. Under the digital insurance business strategy, the Group pursues establishing a new customer base by offering products and services through “digital touchpoints” with millennial generation consumers. 

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US terminating relationship with WHO; takes steps against China

Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities. Countless lives have been taken, and profound economic hardship has been inflicted all around the globe, US President Donald Trump said.

Stating that the funding of the WHO would now be diverted to other global public health organisations, Trump announced a series of decisions against China including issuing proclamation to deny entry to certain Chinese nationals and tightening of regulations against Chinese investments in America.
Trump also announced that the US will end special treatment of Hong Kong in response to Chinese imposition of new controls.

He said that the US will revise its travel advisory to warn of surveillance in Hong Kong.

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