Market News
Guernsey Creates ESG Framework for Insurers, Insurance Managers
Guernsey has created an environment, social, and governance (ESG) framework for insurers. The framework was designed by the Guernsey International Insurance Association (GIIA) with the aim of helping member organizations manage ESG opportunities and risks. The framework enables insurers and insurance managers who are members of the GIIA to self-certify. Learn More
Latest Attacks Underscore Rapid Growth of the Ransomware Threat
The shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline by a ransomware attack is drawing even more attention to the growing threat of this particular cyber-risk exposure. In its 2021 Cyber Security Risk Report, Aon suggests that ransomware attacks "exploded" in 2020, with insurers reporting a 336 percent increase in ransomware claims. Learn More
Pace of Global Insurance Price Increases Slowed in First Quarter
Global insurance prices increased 18 percent during the first quarter of 2021, according to Marsh's Global Insurance Market Index. It was the first quarterly decline in the average rate of premium increase since the index reported the first rise in global rates during the fourth quarter of 2017. Read More
Vermont Lawmakers Approve Bill Easing Reporting Requirements
Vermont lawmakers gave final approval to legislation that will ease reporting requirements for new captive insurance companies. Under S. 88, captives, before receiving a license, will have to file a copy of their organizational documents with the state insurance commissioner along with any other documents requested by the commissioner. Read More
North Carolina Senate Approves Redomestication Incentive Measure
The North Carolina Senate approved legislation that would give captive insurance companies licensed elsewhere an incentive to redomesticate to North Carolina. Captives that redomesticate to North Carolina before December 31, 2022, would be exempt from state premium taxes for the tax year in which they redomesticate and the following year. Read More
ILS Market Remains Strong as First-Quarter Issuance Exceeds Average
Unphased by the COVID-19 pandemic, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market continued to thrive through the first quarter of 2021. While the quarter's new issuance might have fallen short of last year's record pace, new catastrophe bonds and related ILS issuance exceeded the 10-year average. Read More
As Market Hardens, Risk Retention Groups' Premiums Grew in 2020
Amid tightening conditions in the traditional insurance market, risk retention groups (RRGs) did more business last year, according to a new analysis. The analysis by Douglas A. Powell, senior financial analyst at Demotech Inc., found that RRGs wrote $3.8 billion in direct premiums in 2020, up 6.4 percent from 2019. Read More