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Microsoft offers a new tool to help US politicians crack down on Deepfakes
The new tool will allow parties to authenticate their videos and...
Meta to require disclosures for AI-created, altered political ads
Meta, the world's second-biggest platform for digital ads, said in...
Quarterly global InsurTech fundraising trend slashed by over 50%, COVID-19 a likely culprit:Willis Towers Watson
InsurTechs raised a total of US$912 million during the first three months of 2020.Deal count, at 96, was up 28% over Q4 2019, 10% more than the first quarter of that year. It is the highest number of investment rounds by transactional volume ever recorded by the Quarterly InsurTech Briefing.Overall total funding was down by 54 percent, however, reflecting in part far fewer ‘mega-deals’ (US$100 million-plus deals) taking place in the year so far.
COVID-19 general insurance losses seen higher than 9/11 claims: Willis Towers Watson
Willis also said it has modeled an extreme pandemic scenario, which could result in $140 billion of losses
HSBC to buy out life insurance joint venture partner in China
HSBC agreed to acquire its China life insurance venture partner’s 50% stake to own fully the company under the new rules on foreign ownership that came into effect in January.
U.S. airlines now requiring masks, promise more safety measures
The industry, through lobby Airlines for America, has also begun discussions with policymakers in Washington on measures such as virus testing and pre-boarding temperature checks, United Chief Communications Officer Josh Earnest said.
Warren Buffett says the coronavirus cannot stop America, or Berkshire Hathaway
Buffett confirmed that Berkshire in April sold its “entire positions” in the four largest: American Airlines Group Inc, Delta Air Lines Inc, Southwest Airlines Co and United Airlines Holdings Inc.
Covid-19 Pandemic:US life insurance claims may touch $7.2 bn
The estimate includes costs for policyholders between the ages of 56 and 74, which are projected to reach as much as a combined $4.1 billion for individual and group plans, the researcher said in a study released Thursday. Life insurers are in good shape and should be able to manage surging costs, according to the report’s author, Samantha Chow.
Individual policies would account for 81% of claims, while group plans such as those offered by employers would make up the rest, the Aite study found. Insurers’ main challenge will be how to handle claims as economic hardship spreads, Chow said.
“The biggest issue is going to be that these beneficiaries that are calling after losing a loved one who might have passed as a result of Covid-19 — they’ve incurred a lot of health-care costs,” she said. “They might need the money really quickly in order to survive.”
UK watchdog goes to court to clarify coronavirus business insurance
“This will assist both insurers and the insured. It will not determine how much is payable under individual policies, but will provide the basis for doing so,” the FCA said in a statement on Friday.
half of world’s workforce risks losing livelihoods in pandemic: ILO
“It shows I think in the starkest possible terms that the jobs employment crisis and all of its consequences is deepening by comparison with our estimates of 3 weeks ago,” ILO Director-General Guy Ryder told a briefing, foreseeing a “massive” poverty impact.Already, wages of the world’s 2 billion informal workers plunged by an estimated global average of 60% in the first month that the crisis unfolded in each region, the ILO said.
India’s Glenmark to conduct trials for potential COVID-19 drug
Favipiravir, manufactured under the brand name Avigan by a unit of Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings Corp (4901.T) and approved for use as an anti-flu drug in the Asian island country in 2014, has been effective, with no obvious side-effects, in helping coronavirus patients recover, a Chinese official told reporters at a news conference last month.
“After having successfully developed the API and the formulations … Glenmark is all geared to immediately begin clinical trials on favipiravir on COVID-19 patients in India,” Sushrut Kulkarni, executive vice-president for Global R&D, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, said in a statement.
France drafting future insurance backstop for pandemics
A working group set up by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, which includes lawmakers, business lobbies, France’s insurance association and public reinsurer CCR, is examining further insurance options to cover events like pandemics – and aims to put forward proposals by the first half of June, Axa’s Renaud Guidee told Reuters.