Of Special Interest

Filters

[x] [x]

29th May 2016

Newslink Global Insurance Trends
Trend

This week, a survey on UK Brexit from lawyer Kennedy's confirmed previous reports that the UK insurance industry strongly favours staying in the European Union-there were warnings from some participating executives that the London Market would be under threat, possibly in a short timeframe, if the vote was "Leave". Interestingly, the London Market Group(LMG) co-published with UK Trade & Industry(UKTI) a booklet entitled "Britain is Great-The London Market", aimed at marketing internationally the London Market's depth and width of experience, and its uniqueness. Swiss Re issued its annual SONAR report highlighting major emerging risks for the (re)insurance industry and society, Deloitte reported that although the UK motor insurance sector saw a rise in premium revenue, the net combined ratio also rose, and Standard & Poor's looked at additional reserving requirements for German life insurers. Pegasystems and Cognizant commissioned a global report which highlighted that financial services companies, including insurers, need to understand more about the potential for blockchain technology.
The president of Insurance Europe, Sergio Balbinot, said in a speech in Dublin that consumer information needs to be simplified. EIOPA launched an EU-wide stress test and the Prudential Regulatory Authority(PRA) consulted on Solvency II internal model drift in relation to the reporting formula Solvency Capital Requirement(SCR). The Financial Conduct Authority(FCA) announced the level of early pensions charges it will cap, and the Association of British Insurers(ABI) said it was ready to look at the next stage of development of the Pensions Dashboard. The ABI also called for the establishment of an anonymised database of cyber attacks on businesses, and named four new Board members.
Atticus Associates announced the launch of its data quality platform with Brit, and Taiping Life(Hong Kong) went operational with two eBaoTech solutions. Sapiens is growing management and staff in North America, and also announced that Turkish insurer Anadolo was extending its Sapiens applications to include motor insurance. Sciemus recruited Nick Beecroft from Lloyd's to explore solutions for emerging risks, and SSP predicted that 80% of its policy admin clients would be using its SaaS platform by 2020. Tech Mahindra moved for the Target Group, and Transactor is partnering with Excel in Business.
AXA, as expected, is to sell its remaining UK life business, including Sun Life, to Phoenix Group, and also announced the creation of a new Management Committee globally-Paul Evans is to oversee Global Life, Savings, and Healthcare, and Amanda Blanc will take over from him as head UK and Ireland. Aegon is to divest the remainder of its annuity liabilities to Legal & General, Gable is to carry out a strategic review which could result in major restructuring, and Sedgwick is to acquire Irish claims outsourcing services provider OSG Group. Towergate's ceo was optimistic after first quarter figures, and the company also launched a Speciality Division in London with two senior hires. Vienna Insurance Group was impacted by the low interest environment but is on track. There were senior appointments at AGCS in London, Markel International, Price Forbes, and Sompo Canopius.
Articles on the above topics are included in those added to the Insurance Newslink and Financial Newslink global trends database services last Wednesday and today at www.onlystrategic.com -featuring advanced structured search and report facilities and a free 14 day full trial.