Lloyd’s Chief Executive, Inga Beale, said: “These results and return to profit demonstrate the strength of the Lloyd’s market following one of the costliest years for natural catastrophes in the past decade. Whilst these results are welcome, Lloyd’s continues to concentrate on improving the Lloyd’s market’s long-term performance by taking action to address underperforming areas of the market.

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.

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.  

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