Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Outlooks Revised to Stable for Illinois’ Specialty Risk of America
May 16 2019 // AM Best has revised the outlooks to stable from negative and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B+ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bbb-” of Specialty Risk of America (SPRISKA) in...
BPL Global Adds Marsh’s DeCarlo to Grow Credit, Political Risk Business in U.S.
May 15 2019 // Credit and political risk insurance brokerage specialist BPL Global has appointed Donnie DiCarlo as executive vice president. He will be based in New York and is charged with expanding BPL’s client base in the U.S....
Cyber Insurance Growth Slowed in Reaching $2 Billion in 2018, Says Fitch
May 15 2019 // The cyber insurance market remains a source of growth for U.S. property/casualty insurers; however, that growth is slowing, according to Fitch Ratings. The industry’s total direct written cyber premiums grew 8% in...
Allianz Posts Q1 Net Profit of $2.21B, a Small Rise from Q1 2018
May 14 2019 // German insurer Allianz SE on Tuesday posted a small rise in net profit in the first quarter from a year earlier, marginally ahead of expectations, and confirmed its targets for 2019. Results were helped by lower claims...
Lloyd’s Commissions Culture Survey to Help Raise Standards of Behavior
May 13 2019 // Lloyd’s of London has commissioned an independent culture survey following a Bloomberg Businessweek article that uncovered evidence of sexual misconduct in the world’s oldest insurance market. The survey is...
W.N. Tuscano Agency Agrees to Acquire Pennsylvania’s Insurance Markets Inc.
May 10 2019 // W.N. Tuscano Agency Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire Clarks Summit, Penn.-based Insurance Markets Inc. Founded in 1960, Insurance Markets Inc. is a managing general agency (MGA) and surplus lines broker serving...
Waymo’s Autonomous Taxi Service Picks Up 1,000th Customer After 6 Months
May 10 2019 // The first major self-driving taxi service needed six months to reach 1,000 customers, another sign that growth may be slow as companies try to build businesses around autonomous vehicles. Waymo, the self-driving project...
Loss Estimate for Australia’s Townsville Flood Rises to A$1.041 Billion: PERILS
May 10 2019 // Insured property losses for floods that affected northern Queensland, Australia, and in particular the city of Townsville, have risen to A$1.041 billion ($727 million), according to PERILS, the independent Zurich-based...
$10B Fund for California Fire Costs May Dry Up by 2030
May 10 2019 // California has for months been weighing the idea of a fund that utilities could dip into when facing crippling costs tied to wildfires. On Wednesday, state lawmakers got a feel for how big that fund would have to...
Zurich Insurance on Track to Meet 2019 Targets, Sees Positive P/C Pricing Trends
May 9 2019 // Zurich Insurance is on track to meet or beat its financial targets to 2019 and is seeing positive trends in property and casualty (P/C) insurance pricing. Europe’s fifth-biggest insurer made the forecast on Thursday...
Freeland Joins Assured Risk Cover to Grow Florida Parametric Product
May 9 2019 // Assured Risk Cover (ARC) has hired Tom Freeland as Market president and investor. Freeland will be responsible for growing the revenue streams of its Florida-based StormPeace residential and commercial parametric insurance...
Federal Reserve Again Warns About Increase in High-Risk Company Debt
May 7 2019 // The Federal Reserve escalated its warnings about the perils ofleveraged loan Monday, saying firms with the worst credit profiles are the ones taking on more and more debt. The Fed also left a question unanswered: Is it...
Swiss Re: Insurance Industry Must Wake Up to Costs of ‘Secondary’ Catastrophe Perils
May 6 2019 // The insurance industry must wake up to the growing cost of “secondary” catastrophe perils, which amounted to more than 60 percent of the $76 billion price tag for insured natural catastrophe losses during 2018,...
Risk Managers Report Lowest Level of Risk Readiness in 12 Years: Aon
May 6 2019 // Survey Ranks Economic Slowdown, Reputation/Brand as Top Concerns Economic and global trade concerns are challenging organizations’ ability to invest adequately in preparing for and protecting the continuity of their...
Telemedicine Takes Workers’ Comp Into the Future
May 6 2019 // The use of telemedicine may be in its nascent stages within the workers’ compensation system, but the starting line has definitely been crossed with employers and workers’ comp insurers embracing the ability to...
Busy Wildfire Season Along West Coast: Forecast
May 3 2019 // Most of the country can expect a normal wildfire season but residents along the West Coast of the United States should be ready for another busy season, the National Interagency Fire Center said this week. California...
Future Focused? Research Finds Agents Split on Succession
May 2 2019 // Is succession planning a priority for independent agencies? How prepared are they for transition of ownership? The latest Channel Harvest Research survey, “Agent Voices 2019,” reveals nearly half of agency...
Cybersecurity Costing Large Financial Firms $3,000 Per Employee: Survey
May 2 2019 // Big banks and other financial firms spend as much as $3,000 per employee to defend computer networks from cyber criminals, a survey found, as the industry remains the primary target of such attacks. That would translate to...
North Carolina On-the-Job Deaths Rise to Highest Level Since 2008
May 1 2019 // Signs that more people are dying on the job has workers’ advocates demanding that North Carolina’s labor department do more to inspect and punish companies that imperil their workers. Members of the AFL-CIO...
UK Climate Change Adviser to Recommend Target of Zero Emissions by 2050: Sources
Apr 30 2019 // The U.K. government’s official adviser on climate change is set to recommend the country adopt a target to drive net fossil fuel emissions to zero by 2050, according to people familiar with the plan. If adopted, the...
