Latest Market Headlines
All the headlines from our Market Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Survey: Prices Continue to Drop for Commercial Lines Market
Jan 14 2008 // Commercial lines insurance premiums continued to tumble during the fourth quarter of 2007, according to the RIMS Benchmark Survey, an industry survey of policy renewal prices as reported by corporate risk managers. Despite...
Genstar Capital, Execs Create National Brokerage for Hispanic Consumers
Jan 14 2008 // San Francisco-based Genstar Capital LLC, a middle market private equity firm, has partnered with insurance industry executives and Westline Corp. to establish Confie Seguros, a platform company formed to facilitate the...
Deregulation Pushing Banks Into Insurance Industry
Jan 13 2008 // As the financial services industry has evolved since deregulation, there has been a rise in “bancassurance: the joint effort of banks and insurers to provide insurance services to the bank’s customer...
What the Reauthorization of TRIA Means to the P/C Industry
Jan 13 2008 // On Dec. 26, President George W. Bush signed the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 to reauthorize the federal backstop for seven years. First and foremost, reauthorization of TRIA means it is...
Continuing Education Methods Serve a Positive Purpose
Jan 13 2008 // Continuing education (CE) is a fact of life for all agents and brokers. Because states require CE credits, it translates into the reality of a continuous, and often repetitive, obligation — a career-long commitment of...
Aiming to Improve Alaska
Jan 13 2008 // A small state like Alaska sometimes has trouble convincing the property/casualty insurance industry of creating opportunities in its state. So Alaska Director of Insurance Linda Hall relies on her experiences as a former...
The World According to TRIPRA
Jan 13 2008 // Passage of federal terrorism insurance extension buys another seven years for industry to find a long-term solution Many in the insurance industry breathed a cool sigh of relief when just five days before the Terrorism...
Contractors’ Insurance: The Hard Sell for the Soft Market
Jan 13 2008 // Selling Long-term Relationships over Short-term Savings For contractor Paige Smith of Neuse Tile Service Inc. in Youngsville, N.C., the increase in cold calls she is receiving from insurance agents is a sure sign of the...
Research & Markets Issues Report on South Africa
Jan 9 2008 // Dublin-based Research and Markets announced the addition of “South African Insurance Industry Forecast till 2012” to their offering. The report “provides extensive research and in-depth analysis of the...
Insurance Bureau of Canada Calls for ‘Heightened Cooperation’ on Quakes
Jan 8 2008 // Central Europe isn’t the only place in the world that faces earthquake threats (See related article). The Insurance Bureau of Canada has issued a call for the creation of an ongoing working group between the...
Guy Carpenter Publishes Reinsurance Review
Jan 3 2008 // Guy Carpenter greeted the new year with the publication of “Near Misses, Plentiful Reminders: Global Reinsurance Review January 2008,” which it describes as a “briefing on the major trends driving pricing...
Fitch Analyzes Brazil’s Overhaul of Reinsurance Rules
Jan 3 2008 // Fitch Ratings said it has “reviewed the main changes introduced by Resolutions 168, 169, 170, 171 and 172 of Brazil’s National Private Insurance Board, published in December 2007.” See also IJ web site:...
Top Insurance Stories in 2007
Dec 31 2007 // The debate over climate change captured the world’s attention, including the insurance industry’s, in 2007, while major hurricanes spared the United States’ coastline. The soft market took hold of...
Conn. Private Coastal Insurance Market Works, Say Commissioner and Insurers
Dec 27 2007 // Acknowledging the ongoing concern over coastal property insurance in his state, Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Thomas Sullivan maintained that the state’s coastal property insurance market is in pretty good shape...
P/C Insurers’ Net Income, Surplus Rose But Profitability Dropped
Dec 27 2007 // The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry’s net income after taxes rose 7.1 percent to $49.4 billion through nine-months 2007 from $46.1 billion through nine-months 2006. Fueled by the industry’s net...
Natural Disasters, Fires, Floods, Fair Conduct Fueled Insurance Industry Discussions in 2007
Dec 23 2007 // While 2007 was surprisingly calm year for hurricanes, that doesn’t mean Mother Nature didn’t have a tantrum or two. In the past year, the West faced its share of disasters, with freezes, floods and fires making...
Agents Wish for More Stability, But Predict Soft Market Will Continue in 2008
Dec 23 2007 // Industry hopes for disaster solutions, federal terrorism insurance extension, regulation reform and more In 2007, buyers of insurance reaped in the rewards of a soft insurance market. But for agents and brokers the soft...
2007: Climate Change Dominates Debate While Soft Market Hits Entire P/C Market
Dec 23 2007 // The debate over climate change captured the world’s attention, including the insurance industry’s, in 2007, while major hurricanes spared the United States’ coastline. The soft market took hold of...
Survey of Analysts Projects Healthy Underwriting Profits
Dec 23 2007 // I.I.I.’s Earlybird Forecast predicts negative premium growth but continued profitability in 2008 Next year may go down on record as one of the best insurance industry underwriting performances in the past 80 years,...
Airline Insurance Market to Post Loss for Year; First Since 2000
Dec 20 2007 // The airline insurance market this year is expected to post its first loss since 2000, according to preliminary data collected by the Aviation & Aerospace division of Aon Corporation. Aon reported that forecasts...
