Category:

Reinsurance

As US wildfire threat grows, insurance capacity shrinks

Most wildfire losses that have hit the insurance market originated from California utility companies due to inverse condemnation, which states that private property owners are entitled to compensation if their property is damaged by the government or utilities.

While all U.S. states have such doctrines in place, California has been the only one to apply it for utility-related fires.

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China’s ‘iPhone city’ relocates 100,000 people after record rain, flood

The city of Zhengzhou in the central province of Henan saw 457.5 millimeters (18 inches) of rain fall in the 24 hours through 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the highest since records began for the city of more than 10 million people, the official Xinhua news agency reported. That included a record 201.9 millimeters in a single hour, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. The city’s airport said on its Weibo page it has temporarily suspended inbound flights.

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As cyberattacks rise, Cyber insurers are overhauling their strategies

Cyber policies are relative newcomers to the centuries-old insurance industry. The sector has exploded in the past decade — with premiums more than doubling since 2015 and totaling $3.15 billion last year, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Some firms are charging more for less coverage. Clients in US paid 35% more for cyber coverage in the first quarter than they did in the same period last year, according to broker Marsh McLennan. Demand for standalone policies surged 24% last year.
Wrestling with higher costs and more risk, insurers are tightening standards, boosting prices and slashing how much they’re willing to pay for a breach.

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From China to Germany, floods expose climate vulnerability

“Governments should first realize that the infrastructure they have built in the past or even recent ones are vulnerable to these extreme weather events,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor and co-director, Institute of Water Policy, at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
. In Europe, climate change is likely to increase the number of large, slow-moving storms that can linger longer in one area and deliver deluges of the kind seen in Germany and Belgium, according to a study published https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020GL092361 June 30 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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World Bank provides $185million to Jamaica in storm protection

Dr The Hon. Nigel Clarke, Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Government of Jamaica, said, “The Government of Jamaica has strategically prioritized Disaster Risk Financing to mitigate the adverse fiscal impact of tropical cyclones and natural disasters, thereby strengthening Jamaica’s economic resilience. We are pleased with the successful placement of this catastrophe bond, which adds an indispensable layer of disaster risk financing that complements our multi-layered approach. In this transaction, Jamaica benefited from the vast technical resources of the World Bank, and from the strength of its balance sheet. We are also grateful to our bilateral partners, the Governments of the United Kingdom and Germany, through the Global Risk Financing Facility, and to the United States through the United States Agency of International Development who provided financial support for the transaction.”

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Final settlement for Brazil’s Samarco dam disaster could reach $19 bln, governor says

That estimate is nearly four times higher than an initial deal struck with mining companies in 2016, which created a foundation to implement reparations and temporarily froze lawsuits relating to the incident. “The expectation is that the agreement is around 100 billion reais,” Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, told Reuters in an interview late on Friday.

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