Italian insurer Generali blamed “poor financial market conditions” for a 6.9% Q1 fall in new life business, year on year, to €1.3bn (£1bn, $1.5bn).

Zurich Insurance Group reported a drop in net profits for the first quarter, after operating profits fell 23% in general insurance and a marginal decrease in the company’s Global Life business.

How do they do it? Argentina came back into the international debt markets last month with a substantially over-subscribed issue.

This week, Swiss Re published a new Sigma report which identified 21 frontier markets worldwide, and Willis Towers Watson, in its 2016 Global Medical Trends, highlighted the increase in the cost of health insurance.

After several years of relative silence, the sudden resurgence of institutional shareholder criticism of excessive executive pay awards last week took people by surprise.

This week, several interesting surveys were published. Accenture's global report indicated that insurers should put people first to get the most out of digital transformation, whilst Teradata said that 83% of French, German and UK insurers polled saw big data strategy as their most critical priority.