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Private general insurers expand market share to 53.58 pc in H1’FY24
According to the Irdai data, up to September 2023 health insurance...
Universal Sompo General Insurance records 47% growth in TN under PMSBY scheme
Universal Sompo General Insurance, a partner of the Centre's...
As Asia’s tropical storm season arrives, grounded airplanes at risk of damage
Major airports in storm-vulnerable regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and India have been effectively turned into giant parking lots as COVID-19 travel restrictions choke demand.
“If you have got those aircraft on the ground, you can imagine to get them back up and running in a short space of time is no easy thing,” said Gary Moran, head of Asia aviation at insurance broker Aon. “The challenge is you can have a typhoon or hurricane coming and there are going to be a lot of aircraft that aren’t going to be able to be moved in time.”
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.
Mumbai avoids brunt of cyclone that barrels into India’s west coast
Cyclone Nisarga also did not cause any major damage on the southern coast of Gujarat on Wednesday afternoon and evening following landfall near Alibaug in Maharashtra. The Gujarat government had evacuated over 63,700 people from coastal areas of eight districts and 18 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and six teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were deployed for rescue operations.
Flight operations resumed at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. Arrivals and departures were suspended at 2:30 pm due to strong crosswinds induced by Cyclone Nisarga.
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.
Cyclone Nisarga to disrupt India’s Mumbai financial hub
The second cyclone in the country in a fortnight will carry heavy rain and wind speeds as high as 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles). It is seen hitting the coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat Wednesday afternoon and will be intense enough to damage communication, electricity poles, trees, and plantations, according to the India Meteorological Department.
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.
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.
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.”
Mumbai gets first severe cyclone alert in 129 yrs
IMD’s cyclone track shows that Nisarga will cross very close to the Mumbai coast while entering the land. Maharashtra and Gujarat are on pre-cyclone alert as very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall is expected in parts of the states on June 3 and June 4. Fishermen are advised not to venture into the sea for the next few days as it is expected to be very rough.
AM Best maintains its negative outlook on India’s non-life insurance market
Factors that mnay lead to AM Best revising its India non-life outlook to stable fron negative in the future include evidence of sustainable improvement in the underwriting performance supported by better pricing discipine, as well as an improved balance of overall earnings and stabilising of economic indicators, explained AMBest..