Industry News

International Risk Management Institute, Inc. (IRMI®), is providing several free resources to the public in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia to help victims and insurance professionals navigate the insurance process after the devastation of Hurricane Florence.

Around half of insurance industry practitioners see the risk of "silent cyber" exposure—potential cyber-related losses due to silent coverage from insurance policies not specifically designed to cover cyber risk—as growing over the coming year.

In conjunction with sponsor Strategic Risk Solutions (SRS), the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) has announced an essay contest for college students studying risk management and insurance. Essay contest winners receive cash prizes and the opportunity to present their winning papers at the 2019 CICA International Conference in Tucson, Arizona, March 10–12.

Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. announced that it will acquire Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc for an estimated enterprise value of $6.4 billion.

Markel Corporation (Markel) and Nephila Holdings Limited (Nephila) entered into a definitive agreement for Markel to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Nephila. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The newest Aon Reinsurance Solutions advisory team will provide capital optimization services for re/insurers, Lloyd's syndicates, and captive insurers.

On October 16–17, the Connecticut Captive Insurance Association (CCIA) will host its 2018 Annual Collaborative focused on Innovation and Managing Cyber Risk through Captives. For this year's event, CCIA is capitalizing on the innovative hackathon concept with its Cap-a-thon (a.k.a. captive hackathon).

As the captive domicile, Guernsey continues to make headway with the Chinese market. Wendy Weng, Guernsey Finance's Shanghai representative, said that the Chinese government has been supportive of Guernsey's promotion of captive insurance in the country, which has also had an educational element.

An A.M. Best briefing said most reinsurers will experience losses from Hurricane Florence due to the highly syndicated nature of property catastrophe business, and the potential exists for losses to impact alternative capacity on a reinsurance and retrocessional basis as its participation in the sector has increased year over year.

A new Best's Market Segment Report on the global reinsurance sector, titled "Global Reinsurance: Optimism Fizzles, It's Back to the 'New Normal,'" analyzes the state of the insurance-linked securities market following the 2017 catastrophes and also includes a top 50 ranking of the world's largest reinsurers.

A report from Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) discusses current global trade conflicts in the framework of the challenge to Pax Americana. According to the report, US relations with China continue to deteriorate, and a middle ground will be hard to navigate.

At the Monte Carlo International Rendez-Vous of insurance and reinsurance, Swiss Re revealed that it believes some of the current improvements in the overall market environment provide a chance for the insurance sector to embrace new market dynamics such as the increased use of digital solutions.

Swiss Re said that worldwide, most major non-life insurance markets are in a phase of below-average profitability. The reinsurer's latest sigma report assesses the existing earnings gap in the non-life insurance sector. The analysis shows that insurers in major western markets and Japan need to improve underwriting margins.

Last week the Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) responded to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) concerning the captive insurance aspects of the OECD's public discussion draft document, titled "BEPS Actions 8-10 Financial Transactions," which discusses base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) and considers the relationship between transfer pricing and value creation.

Fitch Ratings has revised its outlook for the global reinsurance sector to stable from negative on the belief that earnings have settled at a "new normal," with return on capital likely to be more modest but less volatile than before.

IVANS has announced its August 2018 "IVANS Index: Premium Renewal Rate Index" results. Bouncing back from last month's results of decreasing rate change across almost all lines of business, August results show positive change across nearly all major commercial lines except for commercial auto, which experienced slight negative change.

Operating performance moderately improved for property-casualty re/insurers during the first half of the year thanks to improved core loss ratios, lower catastrophe losses, and lower taxes along with favorable movement in loss reserves.

The International Center for Captive Insurance Education (ICCIE) revealed that Captive Insurance Companies Association continues as its leading financial supporter and provided updates from the Vermont captive conference, where it announced the latest ICCIE fellow designee as well as the winners of the Harry House and Vermont Captive Insurance Association Distinguished Scholar Awards.

A new Vermont-domiciled captive insurance solution is available. The captive, eCaptiv LLC, will be funded through client participation and will provide auto liability, general liability, excess liability, and workers compensation coverages. The program will also offer "significant" excess reinsurance above captive retentions.

There has been a shift in investor expectations in recent years, with shareholders judging companies on a broader spectrum of criteria, rather than solely on financial metrics, according to a new briefing by A.M. Best.