International P&C insurance news: August 2020
Here is a round-up of recent property & casualty insurance news from outside the U.S.
Editor’s Note: Here is a round-up of recent property & casualty insurance news from outside the U.S.
The Beirut, Lebanon, port explosion is estimated to have caused around $3 billion in damages, according to a recent Reuters article. The blast that occurred on August 4 is the biggest in Beirut’s history and killed more than 150 people and destroyed thousands of structures.
U.K Prime Minister Boris Johnson proposed 5.2 billion pounds ($6.6 million) be spent on flood defenses through 2021. The plan includes the construction of about 2,000 new flood and coastal protection to defend about 336,000 properties better, said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in a statement to Bloomberg. The plan also changes the nation’s Flood Re insurance program to permit claims for the installation of flood resilience measures and repairs for affected properties.
French insurer AXA SA announced that it lost 1.5 million euros ($1.8 billion) in the first half of 2020 due to pandemic-related claims.
Zurich-based Swiss Re reported a profit loss of $1.1. billion for first-half 2020 due to COVID-19-related insurance claims.
The Belgian general insurance market is expected to decline 1.6% in gross written premium this year, says GlobalData. ”Belgian insurers are fighting to keep customers. General insurers have relaxed renewal terms and added additional services to their customers,” said Deblina Mitra, GlobalData insurance analyst, in a statement.
Sampo Oyj, a Finnish insurance company, is considering a takeover of Hastings Group Holdings PLC to enter the U.K. insurance market, Bloomberg reported.
South African insurers Santam Ltd., Hollard Insurance Co., and Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Ltd.’s Guardrisk have agreed to pay some business policyholders for business interruption insurance claims resulting from COVID-19 shutdowns.
Beazley launched a suite of cyber and financial lines insurance products in Colombia. Beazley tailored an information security and privacy (InfoSec) policy to protect against a wide range of cyber and data security risks impacting Colombia-based businesses. The core policy provides first and third party protection and e-crime cover as well as costs for managing a data breach.
Cape Town-based insurer Old Mutual named acting Chief Executive Officer Iain Williamson as the company’s permanent head. Former CEO Peter Moyo was ousted in 2019 due to a conflict of interest.
Lloyd’s of London has partnered with Parsyl Inc. to provide policies covering the storage and shipping of potential COVID-19 vaccines and other medicines. The new business, known as Syndicate 1796, was developed by Parsyl together with insurers Ascot Group and a unit of AXA SA, broker McGill & Partners, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
German insurer Talanx announced that it will no longer provide insurance coverage for the Canadian Trans Mountain pipeline.
A new Australian Earthquake Model was released by catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR). The new platform is a fully stochastic, event-based earthquake model that serves to capture the effects of earthquake-induced ground shaking and liquefaction on risks located in continental Australia and the island of Tasmania.
China’s coasts face a higher risk of flood, according to new research from the Department of Geography at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). The study found that the average moving speed (or translation speed) of tropical cyclones making landfall over the coast of China dropped by 11% between 1961 and 2017, resulting in about 20% more rainfall, on average, when compared with fast-moving systems.
British auto insurance premiums decreased 5% in Q2 2020 — the most significant quarterly drop since 2018. According to Reuters, the average premium for a comprehensive car insurance policy in the U.K. was 770 pounds ($972.13) for the quarter.
A survey of Australian insurers reveals that 79% are concerned COVID-19 will impact customers and their ability to continue to purchase insurance. The study conducted by Clyde & Co. also shows 43% of Australian insurers are not, or only somewhat, worried about the impact of COVID-19 on their business continuity, and 52% are concerned about the pandemic’s effect on employees.