22nd March 2015

Newslink Trends: Global Insurance Analysis

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This week, Solvency II issues warmed up-after EIOPA published the Final Reports on full equivalence assessments for Bermuda,Japan, and Switzerland, there were indications that there will shortly be movement towards discussions with the US. The European regulator is to produce a discussion paper on infrastucture investment by insurers and published a progress report on Internal Models. The Bank of England consulted the market about proposed Prudential Regulatory Authority(PRA) fees and levies for 2015/16 and the Association of British Insurers(ABI) commented on the Insurance Fraud Taskforce interim report.
The ABI commented on the The Budget, and the London Market Group(LMG) were pleased to note that The Budget also included a pledge for the Government to work with the industry to ensure ILS capital could be domiciled in the UK, to boost the London Market's reinsurance competitiveness. Steve Hearn, LMG chairman, also spoke to younger professionals at a Lloyd's Market Association(LMA) event encouraging them to get involved in the future strategic development of the market following the publication last November of the LMG/Boston Consulting research-"London Matters". Conning looked globally at the impact of the increase in Affluent and High Net Worth consumer segments on the life market, Fitch reviewed the opportunities for cyber insurance, Target Group highlighted the confusion of UK consumers relating to online insurance, and Towers Watson examined the growth of predictive modelling in the North American p&c insurance sector.
Guy Carpenter launched its new data-driven casualty catastrophe model, RMS announced its Economic Exposure Datasets to include Hong Kong and four AsiaPac countries, and Verisk Insurance Solutions introduced ISO ClaimSearch DNA to combat growing US insurance fraud. The American Association of Insurance Services(AAIS) and ACORD are to collaborate on standards.
SSP completed a MBO with the help of investors LDC, part of Lloyds Banking Group, Xchanging announced the first customers for its new Global Reinsurance Placing Platform, and new Xchanging acquisition, Total Objects, is to launch its QuoteCloud solution at the AAMGA Automation Conference in Seattle after a successful last year's event.
Lloyd's opened an office in Beijing, and Liberty Specialty Markets is to operate through Lloyd's new Dubai platform. Concordia and Solon Underwriting were new initiatives announced in the London Market. AIG acquired NSM Insurance in the US, and Swiss Re revealed dividend, new non-executive directors, and a share buy-back to be put to shareholders at its upcoming AGM. Helvetia and Phoenix Group were both pleased with their 2014 results.
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