Latest Europe Headlines
All the headlines from our Europe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
EU Supervisors Face ‘Binding Mediation’ on Simple ABS Disagreements
Sep 24 2015 // National authorities in the European Union will have to submit to binding arbitration if they can’t decide whether to apply the bloc’s new rules on simple securitizations to a transaction, a European Commission...
ACE Names Littooij European Product Champion, Small Marine Commercial
Sep 22 2015 // ACE Group announced the appointment of Paul Littooij, currently marine manager for ACE in Benelux, to the additional role of European product champion, Small Marine Commercial, as it continues to expand its team to better...
EU Weighs Solvency II Capital Relief for Insurers’ Investments in Infrastructure
Sep 21 2015 // The European Union is preparing reduced capital requirements for insurers in a bid to spur investment in long-term infrastructure projects. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is considering amending...
Intellectual Property News: KitKat, Williams Sonoma, Whole Foods, Skechers, Segway, GoDaddy, Apple
Sep 18 2015 // This wrap-up of recent intellectual property cases covers chocolate bar shapes, cookware designs, sneaker similarities, Korean TV copyright device, Quizno’s commercials, personal transporter technology, Oscar award...
National Promises to Cut Carbon Emissions Will Not Be Enough: United Nations
Sep 17 2015 // National promises to cut emissions as part of preparations for a United Nations summit at the end of the year would cap global warming at the unacceptably high level of 3 degrees Celsius, the UN’s climate boss said...
XL Catlin Forms New Leadership Team for Germany
Sep 9 2015 // XL Catlin has announced a new insurance leadership team for Germany. The integration process is now well underway across XL Catlin, with the company maintaining a strong focus on bringing together and retaining its top...
Xuber Survey Finds London Insurance Execs Fear ‘Brexit’
Sep 8 2015 // Xuber, Xchanging’s insurance software business, has published a survey, which concludes that almost three-quarters (71 percent) of insurance executives believe a UK exit from the European Union would be bad for...
Insurers Look to Cyber, M&A Coverage as Prices Decline: Marsh
Sep 7 2015 // Commercial insurance rates continued their global decline in the second quarter of 2015, a trend driven by an abundance of global capacity and a lack of large insured loss activity, Marsh said in its latest Global...
Aon Benfield August Cat Report Highlights Global Droughts, El Niño, Typhoons
Sep 4 2015 // The monthly report for August from Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting catastrophe model development team cites the “severe drought conditions” in the western U.S. as resulting in “economic losses...
National Emissions Plans Fall Short to Limit Climate Change – UN Study
Sep 3 2015 // National plans for limiting greenhouse gas emissions fall short of tough action needed to slow climate change under a United Nations agreement due in Paris in December, European researchers said on Wednesday. The plans...
Study Says European Insurers’ Assets under Management Hit $11 Trillion
Sep 2 2015 // European insurers’ assets under management jumped 9.4 percent to €9.9 trillion ($11.15 trillion) in 2014 from a year earlier, trade body Insurance Europe said on Tuesday, mainly driven by increased investment by...
Carvey Appointed Head of Treaty at Hamilton at Lloyd’s
Aug 31 2015 // Hamilton Underwriting Limited, the Lloyd’s managing agency of Bermuda-based holding company Hamilton Insurance Group, has hired Trevor Carvey as head of treaty. Carvey will report to Dermot O’Donohoe, chief...
Troubled Irish Insurers Seek Solvency II Support From Bond Investors, Buffett
Aug 28 2015 // Investors hunting for yield after a global financial rout might well take a detour to the headquarters of a tiny insurance company hidden away along a highway in west Dublin. Just as world markets cratered on August 24,...
European Re/Insurers Well Positioned to Withstand Market Volatility: A.M. Best
Aug 27 2015 // European re/insurers are well positioned to withstand the current volatility in the stock markets, having made significant changes to their investment portfolios since the global financial crisis of 2008, as well as the...
ANV Underwriters Hires Lippert to Boost Professional Lines Portfolio in Europe
Aug 25 2015 // ANV Underwriters, the international managing general underwriter (MGU) segment of global specialty insurance group ANV, has appointed Christina Lippert as professional lines underwriting manager for Europe. Based in...
Vienna Insurance Q2 Profit Drops 8.6% on Low Interest Rates in Region
Aug 25 2015 // Vienna Insurance Group AG, eastern Europe’s biggest insurer, said profit in the second quarter declined 8.6 percent as low interest rates in the region pushed down returns on its investments. Net income in the three...
Reuters Special Report: U.S. Banks Book Trades Abroad to Bypass U.S. Regulation
Aug 24 2015 // This spring, traders and analysts working deep in the global swaps markets began picking up peculiar readings: Hundreds of billions of dollars of trades by U.S. banks had seemingly vanished. “We saw strange things in...
Shareholders in UK’s RSA Bracing for Lowball Bid from Suitor Zurich Insurance
Aug 24 2015 // Shareholders in British insurer RSA are bracing for a lowball bid from prospective suitor Zurich Insurance, putting one of Europe’s largest ever insurance deals in doubt. After flagging its interest to the market on...
EU Seeking to Cut Minimum Risk Weighting on Simple Securitizations
Aug 21 2015 // The European Commission is seeking to cut the minimum risk weight on securitizations that qualify as simple and transparent to 10 percent to help jump-start the bloc’s capital markets. The 5 percentage-point...
EU Close to Easing Solvency II Capital Rules to Lure Asset-Backed Debt Buyers
Aug 18 2015 // The European Union’s plan to revive the asset-backed securities market may heed industry concerns by broadening the range of products eligible for a high-quality label and easing capital requirements for...
