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14th December 2014

NewslinkTrends: Weekly Insurance Global Analysis
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This week, the Financial Conduct Authority(FCA) issued a spate of releases. Initially, it announced a restructure with senior figures leaving, followed by the damning, expensive Davis Review relating to the FCA's handling of press over its intention to look at closed life books-senior people were named, and bonuses cancelled. The regulator then issued a review on annuity sales and an interim report on retirement income, followed by alterations to complaints handling, and GAP add-ons to general insurance policies.
The House of Lords Committee will hold its last meeting tomorrow debating amendments to the Insurance Bill.
Standard & Poor's warned on the vunerability of some European life insurers and reinsurers as the low interest rate environment continues and Solvency II looms, and also lowered the long-term ratings for some major Italian insurers. US life companies were under the spotlight as EY outlined in its annual report that companies needs to embrace the latest technologies if they are to compete in existing and new opportunity areas, and LIMRA looked at the sector's use of Big Data analytics.
PwC reported that smaller reinsurers in the London Market continued to be under pressure, and the International Underwriting Association(IUA) asked its members to comment on the competiveness of the market following its own research and the London Market Group/Boston Consulting Group global report last month. The IUA also announced a new programme director for London Market modernisation and Lloyd's appointed a director of Finance.
Quindell kept in the headlines by firstly stating that PwC would be conducting a review of cash generation into next year, and announcing new contracts shortly after the news that founder Rob Terry had disposed of a major tranche of his shares. Majesco is to acquire Agile Technologies and Guidewire was successful in Texas with its InsuranceSuite. Admiral's Confused.com is to work with Experian to combat quotation fraud, and Sabre has signed up for SSP's Verify anti-fraud application-SSP also announced that Progressive Direct in Australia has chosen its Pure Insurance system. SunGard released the performance component for its IWorks investment BI dashboard solution, and Xchanging received the green light from the Competition and Markets Authority(CMA) to complete its acquisition of Total Objects.
In the UK, Willis commented on the revised Government funding proposals for Pool Re and announced an addition to its Commercial Network, whilst JLT moved for a Towergate aviation unit and esure is to buy the 50% of Gocompare.com which it does not already own. Berkshire Hathaway got the regulatory nod to conduct non-life insurance in Singapore, Gallagher announced a joint venture in China and two acquisitions in Australia, and Hub International bought in Ontario and California.
Articles on the above topics are included in those added to the Insurance Newslink and Financial Newslink global database service on Wednesday and today at www.onlystrategic.com