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Risk Management

Reinsurers look at dumping coal from bulk-buy policies in green gambit

Five of the world’s six largest reinsurers – Swiss Re, Munich Re, Hannover Re, SCOR and Lloyd’s of London – have already scaled back bespoke coverage for coal projects. But only Swiss Re, in a statement in March, has said it will go further and tighten its treaty reinsurance stance.

A rail contractor to Adani Enterprises’ giant Australian coal project last month, for example, asked the Australian government for help to obtain insurance that it was not able to secure from the market.
“The first consequence is insurance is harder to get, the second consequence is it’s expensive, the third consequence is there are all sorts of caveats on it and at the extreme you might not be offered it”, said Paul Merrey, insurance partner at KPMG.

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Alibaba victim of huge data leak by consultant: Chinese Court

A central Chinese court ruled that an employee of a consultant that helps merchants on Alibaba’s Taobao online mall was guilty of dredging up more than a billion data items on Taobao users since 2019, using that to serve clients. The court imposed jail terms of more than three years on the staffer and his employer, alongside fines totaling 450,000 yuan ($70,260).

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UK COVID-19 BI claims exceed $1 Billion; About half of claims Paid

In total, 16,159 claims have been paid in full out of 37,702 claims that have been accepted by insurers for a final clearance rate of 42.86%.

Aggregate claims paid has risen by 7.9% since the last FCA report, which showed £701.4 million in claims paid. Insurers have made initial or final payments on 53.97% of BI claims that have been accepted by the carriers.
The payments are being made after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled in a BI test case in April. It found insurers are liable for the COVID-19-related business interruption claims of about 370,000 policyholders under policies written before the outbreak and never designed to cover pandemic claims.

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UN chief: Desertification and drought destabilizing well-being of 3.2 billion people

Having contributed to the collapse of biodiversity and promoting zoonoses – diseases which jump from animals to humans
Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called desertification “another reminder” that human health and that of the environment, are “deeply intertwined”.

Desertification and drought also increase water scarcity, at a time when two billion people still lack access to safe drinking water, said Ms. Azoulay, adding that “over three billion may have to confront a similar situation by 2050”.

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COVID-19:Insurance protection gap reaches new high of $1.4 trillion in 2020, Swiss Re

Jérôme Haegeli, Swiss Re Group Chief Economist said “”The global pandemic has accentuated the gap between the rich and poor. It has laid bare the need for governments to focus on rebuilding and promoting social cohesion. Social equity – and at its heart, creating equal opportunities for all – will be a defining feature of a more resilient world.”

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 Twitter loses intermediary status over non-compliance with new rules

“The provisions for significant social media intermediaries under the Rules have already come into force on May 26 2021 and it has been more than a week but Twitter has refused to comply with the provisions of these Rules. Needless to state, such non-compliance will lead to unintended consequences including Twitter losing exemption from liability as intermediary available under section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. This has clearly been provided under rule 7 of the aforesaid Rules,” it said.

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Hong Kong watching Chinese nuclear plant after leak reported

Government data showed radiation levels in Hong Kong were normal Monday night, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said. Data on Tuesday from the Hong Kong Observatory showed radiation still normal.

A French company that helps manage the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong province said Monday it was dealing with a performance issue. It said the facility was operating within safe limits.

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