Latest Germany Headlines
All the headlines from our Germany Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Formal Brexit Talks Likely to Be Triggered in April 2017: UK Officials
Aug 19 2016 // Prime Minister Theresa May’s team is still leaning toward the first part of 2017 as the best moment to trigger the start of formal talks over the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union, according to two...
Volkswagen Wants Investor Class Action Suit Dismissed
Aug 4 2016 // Volkswagen AG and its former chief executive have asked a U.S. federal judge in California to dismiss lawsuits filed by American investors accusing the German automaker of deception involving its cheating on diesel...
AXA H1 Net Income Rises 4% to $3.6B as L&H Earnings Offset Cat Losses
Aug 3 2016 // AXA SA, France’s biggest insurer, said first-half profit rose 4 percent as increased earnings from life and health insurance helped offset higher claims from natural catastrophes. Net income climbed to 3.2 billion...
Fintech Startup Gets German Banking License – with Plans to Offer Insurance
Jul 21 2016 // N26, a Berlin startup that offers financial services directly to consumers, said Thursday it’s received a German banking license that will let it offer a fuller range of products across Europe. The company, whose...
Europe Insurers’ Stress Tests Could Lead to Higher Capital Requirements
Jul 13 2016 // European insurers, whose profits are being eroded by Mario Draghi’s* quantitative easing program, face a stress test headache that risks requiring them to set aside more capital, further hurting their ability to make...
Post-Brexit-Vote Property Panic Could Hit Bank, Insurer Investments
Jul 8 2016 // The run on British property funds has drawn attention to the vulnerability of the commercial real estate sector, largely funded by domestic banks and building societies but increasingly by foreign banks and insurers. UK...
European Insurers Look to Hoarding Cash After Brexit Vote
Jun 29 2016 // Investors will consider hoarding cash in vaults as government bond yields fall deeper into negative territory following the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union, according to Talanx AG, Germany’s...
French & German Floods to Hit Insurers’ Earnings but Not Ratings: A.M. Best
Jun 27 2016 // The earnings of French and German insurers during the first half of 2016 will be dampened by flood claims following storms Elvira and Friederike, which pounded the countries in quick succession between late May and early...
Swiss Re Hikes Corporate Debt Holdings, Cuts Risky Government Bonds
Jun 17 2016 // The European Central Bank has turned government bonds into one of the riskiest asset classes, prompting Swiss Re AG to move more of its investments into corporate debt, according to the reinsurer’s chief investment...
BHSI Opens German Office, Fills Key Roles in Northern Europe
Jun 16 2016 // Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Co. (BHSI) in coordination with its affiliate Berkshire Hathaway International Insurance Limited (BHIIL), announced it has opened an office in Düsseldorf, Germany, and filled key...
Brexit Would Threaten UK’s Access to EU via Single Passport: Officials
Jun 15 2016 // Britain’s partners are stepping up warnings that if it votes next week to leave the European Union, banks and financial firms based in London could lose their money-spinning EU “passports.” The City of...
Insurers Provide Cover for German Banks Stashing Billions of Euros
Jun 14 2016 // Europe’s top insurers are selling protection to German banks that hoard billions of euros of cash in vaults to avoid paying a penalty by parking it at the European Central Bank, company executives told Reuters. The...
Tornado Hits Hamburg – Latest in Europe’s Destructive Summer Storms
Jun 8 2016 // A tornado tore through the northeast of Hamburg on Tuesday evening, blowing off the roofs of several buildings, uprooting dozens of trees and damaging cars and a power line as storms that have raged across Europe this...
Update: German Flood Claims Estimated at $1.1B, Says Fitch Ratings
Jun 7 2016 // Insurers will face higher-than-expected claims related to floods in Germany, according to Fitch Ratings, dealing another blow to an industry squeezed by low interest rates and decreasing prices for policies. Claims linked...
Update: Flash Floods Hit SE Germany, Killing at Least 8; AIR Worldwide Comments
Jun 2 2016 // Torrential rain, thunderstorms and flash floods that have inundated towns in southeastern Germany in recent days took the death toll to at least eight as forecasters warned of continuing severe weather spreading northward...
Munich Re to Spend $1.1B by 2020 to Restructure Primary Insurance Unit
Jun 1 2016 // Munich Re, the world’s second-biggest reinsurer, plans to spend 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) by 2020 restructuring operations at its loss-making primary insurance unit in Germany. The plan for ERGO’s German...
Dog Bites Insurer
May 16 2016 // This week is National Dog Bite Prevention Week (certainly a noble cause). To celebrate this “occasion,” the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) published the most recently available dog-bite...
Zurich Restructure on Track, but Organization Still too Complex: CEO Greco
May 16 2016 // While Zurich Insurance Group’s new chief executive officer believes the insurer is on the right track in terms of growth and profit, the organizational structure remains too complicated, he suggested during an...
VW Reported Close to $10 Billion Deal with U.S. for Diesel Fraud
Apr 21 2016 // Volkswagen AG has agreed to set aside at least $10 billion to resolve civil claims by the U.S. government and lawsuits by American car owners over diesel vehicles rigged to cheat pollution controls, a person with direct...
BMW Wants on Uber Train with Car-sharing in Washington
Apr 11 2016 // Germany’s BMW has launched a car-sharing service in Seattle, Wash. where it will offer customers the use of 370 BMW and Mini vehicles, before expanding to other cities in the United States. Established carmakers...
