Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Hurricane Forecasts Good News for Already-Stable P/C Insurers: Fitch
Jun 12 2014 // Early forecasts for the 2014 hurricane season indicate that moderate El Nino conditions are likely to persist throughout the year, which could inhibit tropical storm formation in the North Atlantic basin. This could also...
Active Season for West Pacific: AccuWeather 2014 Typhoon Forecast
Jun 12 2014 // The AccuWeather Global Weather Center has issued a forecast for the 2014 West Pacific typhoon season, which anticipates “near-normal numbers.” The forecast also noted, however, that “the onset of El Niño...
Global Reinsurer Stocks Face Challenges in 2014: Best Special Report
Jun 11 2014 // A new report from A.M. Best determined that “stocks for publicly traded reinsurance companies, including the four top European players, performed below the overall market for the first quarter of 2014, declining 1.3...
Fitch Upgrades Lloyd’s Ratings to ‘AA-‘; Outlook Stable
Jun 11 2014 // Fitch Ratings announced that it has upgraded Lloyd’s of London’s Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) rating to ‘AA-‘ from ‘A+’, and has also upgraded the Society of Lloyd’s Long-term...
Commercial Lines Prices Up Only 4% in Q1: Towers Watson
Jun 10 2014 // Commercial insurance prices increased by 4 percent in aggregate during the first quarter of 2014, marking the lowest level of growth since fourth-quarter 2011, according to a new survey by Towers Watson. The increase is a...
P/C Insurers Must Manage Emerging Risks Including the Next Big One
Jun 10 2014 // Learning how to manage increasingly complex and evolving risks is essential if property/casualty insurers are to serve the needs of their customers in a changing world. According to analysts and industry executives at...
Massachusetts DOI Rejects FAIR Plan Rate Increase
Jun 9 2014 // Massachusetts Commissioner of Insurance Joseph G. Murphy announced Monday his decision rejecting the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association’s (“FAIR Plan”) request to increase its...
N.H. Businesses Vexed by Latest Delay in Small Group Health Insurance Market
Jun 9 2014 // New Hampshire businesses aren’t happy with the latest delay in the small group health insurance market created by the Affordable Care Act, but some are more understanding than others. Companies have been able to...
Cyber Theft, Already a $445 Billion Business, to Grow Bigger
Jun 9 2014 // Cybercrime remains a growth industry. That’s the main message from former U.S. intelligence officials, who in a report today outlined scenarios for how $445 billion a year in trade theft due to computer hackers will...
Nationwide to Re-Enter New Jersey’s Auto Insurance Market
Jun 6 2014 // New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance Commissioner Ken Kobylowski said today Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company has been approved to write auto insurance in New Jersey, and the company will begin offering auto...
Study: Houston Police Failed to Investigate Over 20,000 Cases Last Year
Jun 6 2014 // More than 20,000 burglary, assault and other cases were not investigated last year by Houston, Texas, police because of a lack of personnel, according to a report released June 2. The findings recommend that at least 45...
GM Report Uncovers 11 Years of Mishandling Ignition Switch
Jun 5 2014 // A 325-page report on General Motors Co.’s mishandling of a deadly ignition switch details missteps by employees and officials over 11 years – from lawyers who failed to heed warnings the company could be liable...
Drive Underway to Increase Truckers’ Minimum Insurance Limits
Jun 5 2014 // Truckers would be required to buy higher insurance limits under a government proposal, although how much higher is not yet known. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) concluded in a report to Congress...
Willis Exec Warns of Rise in ‘White Collar Crime’ in UK
Jun 4 2014 // Francis Kean, executive director in Willis’s financial and executive risks practice has examined a growing trend in white-collar crime in a WillisWire blog. He indicated that” according to a report in The Times...
Dryad Maritime Warns of Increases in Southeast Asia Cargo Thefts
Jun 4 2014 // The latest report of a tanker hijack in Southeast Asia has prompted Dryad Maritime to issue an advisory to its shipping clients, based on the supposition that “crime follows a pattern, which has seen up to six such...
Texas Windstorm Insurer’s Financial Outlook Improved as Hurricane Season Starts
Jun 3 2014 // Low catastrophe activity and claims experience so far this year have helped to put Texas’ insurer of last resort for properties along the Gulf Coast in a better position to face the 2014 hurricane season than it has...
Hurricane Forecast Upped By 1 Over Weaker El Nino
Jun 3 2014 // Colorado State University increased the number of storms it expects to develop during the Atlantic hurricane season to 10 from nine. The forecast calls for four of those to become hurricanes, one of them a major system,...
Best Affirms AmTrust Financial and Subs P&C Ratings; Outlook Stable
Jun 2 2014 // A.M. Best has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of ‘A’ (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a” of the property/casualty subsidiaries of AmTrust Financial Services, Inc. (AFSI),...
Best Affirms Fairfax Financial and Subs Ratings; Outlooks Stable
Jun 2 2014 // A.M. Best has affirmed the issuer credit rating (ICR) of “bbb” and the unsecured debt and preferred equity ratings of Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited. Best also affirmed the financial strength...
1 Year Later, Moore Is Study in Resilience
Jun 2 2014 // Just over one year ago, a deadly EF5 tornado ripped through Moore, Okla., making it the third most violent storm in less than 15 years to pummel the small city, which was struck by an EF5 tornado in 1999, and an EF4 in...
