Covea, an increasingly assertive player on the French insurance market, hopes the Scor deal will make it a major actor on the European stage, where a process of consolidation is set to open up more opportunities for acquisitions.

“This transaction will enable us to build on the growing momentum in our domestic property and casualty businesses,” said Hanover Chief Executive Officer John Roche in a statement.

U.S. insurers are bracing for what could be $20 billion in losses as Hurricane Florence barrels toward the Carolinas and Virginia, bringing punishing rains and potentially deadly flooding

Requirements for reinsurers operating on a cross-border basis to collateralise or localise assets, preventing the global reinsurance market from transferring and spreading  risk  on  the  basis  of  a  competitive level playing field across  borders.

For the treaty renewals as at 1 January 2019 the group therefore expects – despite the overabundance of reinsurance capacity – stable prices and conditions for the most part. Similarly, an industry-wide softening in profitability as well as a higher burden of attritional losses point to a need for improved market conditions.

The Swiss Re Institute estimates the global size of the insurance market to be at USD 4.7 trillion. Roughly 2 billion people worldwide have no  access to insurance, resulting in a very large protection gap. Therefore, a real potential for the re/insurance industry exists to support the global population

The increased networking of machines and equipment in particular can also give rise to very complex risks such as data theft, disruptions in the interaction between networked machines, and even the failure of entire production lines and supply chains.  

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. moved up two spots from last year’s ranking to No. 3, pushing Hannover Rück SE and SCOR SE to the four and five spots, respectively.