Meacock & Company Limited has announced the latest forecasts for the 2018 and 2019 years of account for its managed syndicate 727, as follows:- 2018
Read moreStephen Catlin has assembled a group of senior insurance market people to work on the creation of a new entity that would meet UK businesses' demand for pandemic cover going forward.
Read moreBoth Hiscox and Beazley have published announcements to the London Stock Exchange this morning.
Read moreReuters reported yesterday that Lloyd’s is collating details of insurers’ business interruption coverage for the Prudential Regulation Authority ("PRA") and is in discussions about a government backstop to cover future pandemics, it said in a letter seen by Reuters.
Read moreAs mentioned in Alistair Wood's podcast recently sent to Members in writing, a number of US states are arranging bills for their legislatures to pass that would compel insurers in those states to pay policyholders' BI claims irrespective of any pandemic exclusions in the policy wordings. In a notable push back against this pressure however,
Read moreAccording to rating agency AM Best, in an opinion piece of early April, the underwriting risk from Covid-19 for the non-life reinsurance industry is manageable at the moment thanks to exceptionally robust capitalisation in recent years and furthermore it believes relevant policy exclusions will hold up.
Read moreThe QBE insurance group based in Sydney Australia, has announced that it is taking “pre-emptive and decisive action” as a result of COVID-19 to increase its capital by some US$1.3bn which should enable it to see through any recession and take advantage of growth opportunities in due course.
Read moreThe FCA has written one of its open "Dear CEO" letters dated 15 April to UK insurers advising that it sees no “reasonable grounds” to intervene in BI claims for Covid-19 losses where pandemics are not a feature of the policies. Part of the letter says "Based upon our conversations with the industry to date, our estimate is that most policies have basic cover, do not cover pandemics and therefore would have no obligation to pay out in relation to the COVID_19 pandemic. While this may be disappointing for the policyholder we see no reasonable grounds to intervene in such circumstances." The FCA's letter emphasises though that where there is an obligation to pay out by saying "it is important that claims are assessed and settled quickly.....If there are reasonable grounds to pay part of a claim but not to make the payment of such claims in full, we would like you and your Board to adopt an approach of making an interim payment." The FCA's letter also mentions the Financial Ombudsman Service being a faster decision maker than the Courts. For a copy of the letter click here (downloadable pdf).
Read moreA group of businesses led by PR firm Media Zoo, allege that Hiscox is trying to avoid paying out for what they believe are legitimate business insurance (“BI”) claims related to business closures as a result of the pandemic COVID-19.
Read moreA transcript of Alistair Wood's podcast on the topic of COVID-19 has been sent to Members on 16 April.
Read moreprimary insurers, their brokers and Lloyd’s underwriters have been preparing for the 1st April renewals well in advance with expectations running high for payback opportunities
Read moreThe positives in the 2019 results centred around releases from back years' reserves for the 15th consecutive year, a lower level of major losses and lower operating expenses, which taken together, drove an improvement in the whole market's underwriting figures. The most significant factor was the largest ever investment return on the market's central assets, creating a £2.5bn overall result for the year, the best result for the whole market since 2014.
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