Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Australia’s Suncorp Profit Falls 42%; Hints at Capital Return
Aug 24 2011 // Australian insurer and bank Suncorp reported a 42 percent fall in annual profit on Wednesday, but still beat forecasts and hinted at a capital return once markets stabilized, sending its shares nearly 7 percent higher. But...
XL Insurance Names Hookings as Australian Environmental Underwriter
Aug 19 2011 // XL Insurance, the global insurance operations of XL Group plc, announced the appointment of Andrew Hookings as Environmental underwriter for Australia. He has over 10 years’ insurance industry experience, most...
Insurance Australia Group to Acquire Stake in China’s Bohai Insurance
Aug 16 2011 // Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG) announced it has agreed to acquire a 20 percent strategic interest in China’s Bohai Property Insurance Pty Ltd., a general insurer IAG said it would pay RMB687.5 million...
Murdoch’s Bow to Pressure; Will Attend UK Parliament’s Investigation
Jul 14 2011 // Rupert Murdoch on Thursday caved in to pressure from Britain’s parliament to answer questions over alleged crimes at one of his newspapers, setting up a showdown with lawmakers keen to break the media mogul’s...
Ironshore Expands International Presence with Entrance into Australian Market
Jul 13 2011 // Ironshore Inc. has expanded its international platform to the Australian market to provide access to specialty insurance coverages for large, complex corporate risk. David Rogers has been appointed managing director of...
Reinsurance Prices Flat Except in Catastrophe Regions: Aon
Jul 7 2011 // First quarter catastrophes didn’t halt decreases in most U.S. reinsurance renewal programs, except in regions hard hit by significant catastrophe events, according to a report by a leading reinsurance intermediary....
Aon’s International Space Brokers Opens Hong Kong Operation
Jul 5 2011 // Aon Risk Solutions, the global risk management and insurance brokerage business of Aon Corp., announced the Hong Kong opening of its space insurance practice, International Space Brokers (ISB). The bulletin said Craig...
Brit Opens Lloyd’s Service Company in Australia
Jun 1 2011 // Brit Insurance, which is domiciled in the Netherlands and headquartered in London, announced the opening of a new Lloyd’s service company in Sydney, Australia. The bulletin noted that the new facility follows...
Australia Flood, Cyclone Claims Assessments near Completion Says ICA
May 17 2011 // According to a bulletin on its web site, the Insurance Council of Australia has released updated figures on “how the general industry has responded to the enormous task of assessing over 118,000 insurance claims...
Lloyd’s Estimates Losses from Q1 Disasters at $3.8 Billion
May 13 2011 // After careful calculation Lloyd’s has announced its estimated net claims before tax from the earthquakes this year in Japan and New Zealand and the January 2011 floods in Australia. The current net estimates were...
Beazley Remains Confident, Despite Q1 Catastrophes
Apr 25 2011 // The first quarter of 2011 reminded the insurance industry of just how unpredictable natural catastrophes can be. Beazley plc, which is headquartered in Dublin, but whose main activities, are in the Lloyd’s market,...
AXIS Estimates NZ Quake, Aus. Flood Losses at $275 to $315 Million
Mar 22 2011 // AXIS Capital Holdings Limited has issued a bulletin which estimates that the “total net impact of the New Zealand earthquake and loss events in Australia that have occurred to date in the first quarter of 2011 will...
RenRe Estimates Australia Flood Losses $30 Mn; NZ Quake $190 Mn
Mar 17 2011 // Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. announced its initial loss estimates for the 2011 Australian flooding as well as the February 2011 New Zealand earthquake. The Company said it currently expects the Australian...
Montpelier Re Estimates $75 Mn NZ Quake Losses; $15 Mn Australian Floods
Mar 16 2011 // Bermuda-based Montpelier Re Holdings announced that its preliminary pretax net loss estimate from the February New Zealand earthquake will be around US$75 million, net of reinstatement premiums. The Company added that its...
Insurance Council of Australia Supports National Disaster Insurance Review
Mar 7 2011 // In a recent bulletin the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) said it “has welcomed the National Disaster Insurance Review announced by the Federal Government.” ICA CEO Rob Whelan said the National Disaster...
Business Moves
Mar 7 2011 // Lawson-Hawks, Christopher Lee Insurance Services Lawson-Hawks Insurance Associates Inc., a regional independent insurance broker based in Mountain View, Calif., acquired Christopher Lee Insurance Services of Carmel, Calif....
Tokio Millennium Re Receives Authorization for Australia
Mar 3 2011 // Bermuda-based Tokio Millennium Re Ltd. (TMR), a subsidiary of Japan’s Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd., announced that the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has authorized...
Climate Change to Drive up Food Prices
Mar 2 2011 // Global food prices are likely to keep rising as production struggles to match demand and extreme weather events become more frequent, a climate-change advisor to the Australian government said on Wednesday. Ross Garnaut...
QBE Group Posts $1.278 Billion 2010 Net Profit; $1.168 Billion Underwriting
Mar 1 2011 // The Australia-based QBE Group reported net after tax profits of *$1.278 billion for 2010, a 17 percent decrease from the $1.532 billion reported for 2009. However, the decline was almost entirely due to a drop in...
New Zealand Quake Kills at Least 65; Race to Reach Trapped Victims
Feb 22 2011 // New Zealand rescue teams worked under search lights early Wednesday to find scores of people trapped under collapsed buildings after an earthquake struck the country’s second-biggest city of Christchurch, killing at...
