Douglas Shillito
This week, Lloyd's announced Bruce Carnegie-Brown as its next chairman. It also hosted Liam Fox, UK Secretary of State for International Trade, at its underwriting platform in Singapore to discuss how the British Government and Lloyd’s can work together to further enhance regional trade, reduce underinsurance, and pioneer the development of the cyber insurance market in Asia. David Gittings, CEO of the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) told chief executives from across the Lloyd’s managing agency community that market modernisation, Brexit and supporting the London Market Group (LMG) agenda are top of the LMA’s priorities for 2017. A Lloyd's report warned that the insurance industry could face asset-stranding and liabilities on a global scale as a result of climate change. Cyber-risk security controls that meet international standards might not be fit for purpose, according to a White Paper by Novae Group and Oxford University. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said reform of whiplash claims cannot come soon enough as a Government Bill was published.
On the information technology front, the Adsensa Policy Checking Solution went live at Beecher Carlson in the US, seven US state property and casualty insurance guaranty associations (IGAs) implemented the Insurity SIMS Claims offering, and SSP launched the Polaris imarket live-chat service on its commercial e-trade platform.
Allianz officially announced its presence and growth intentions in the Moroccan market, having bought a book of business from Zurich, and Suncorp is bidding against Fairfax Financial for New Zealand-based insurer Tower. Willis Towers Watson moved for the top French aviation brokerage, and the XL Group Board approved a new share buyback program of up to $1bn of its common shares.
Major insurers were amongst those reporting 2016 and fourth quarter results-including AIA (continued impressive growth and record new business profits), AXA (on track for Ambition 2020 plan), MassMutual (a strong year across the business), RSA ("In 2016, RSA took major strides forward" said CEO Hester), Standard Life ("continues to make good progress towards creating a world-class investment company" said chief executive Skeoch), and PartnerRe ("delivered good operating results in fourth quarter" said CEO Clarke). SCOR (produced "strong set of results" said CEO Kessler), Swiss Re (said it delivered a good performance in 2016), and UK PI Club (highlighted continuing loyalty of members at renewal). There were senior appointments at Chaucer, Chubb, and XL Group.
Full articles on the above topics may be found on the Insurance Newslink and Financial Newslink global trends database services at www.onlystrategic.com.