Latest Trends Headlines

All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Video Game Effort Could Help Regulate Future Drone Traffic

May 20 2019 // By Lindsay Whitehurst Drones ferrying medical supplies, packages and even pizza could one day be crisscrossing the skies above U.S. cities, and a team at the University of Utah is working with regulators to keep that...

AM Best Affirms Ratings of Third Point Re While Revising Outlook to Negative

May 17 2019 // AM Besthas revised the outlooks to negative from stable and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) of “a-” of Bermuda-based Third Point...

Commercial Insurance Prices Were Up 3% Globally, 1.1% in U.S. in Q1: Marsh

May 16 2019 // Average global commercial insurance prices increased 3% in the first quarter of2019, according to broker Marsh. This represents the sixth consecutive quarter of average commercial insurance pricing increases, Marsh said in...

Generali’s Net Profit Rises 28% in First Quarter, Boosted by Asset Sales

May 16 2019 // Generali, Italy’s biggest insurer, reported a larger-than-expected 28 percent rise in first-quarter net profit helped by asset sales, though capital ratios fell due to regulatory changes. Generali’s solvency...

Oil, Gas Shippers Brace for Rise in Insurance Premiums After Saudi Ship Attacks

May 16 2019 // Asian shippers and refiners have put ships heading to the Middle East on alert and are expecting a possible rise in marine insurance premiums after recent attacks on Saudi oil tankers and pipeline facilities, industry...

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...