Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Volkswagen Agrees to $4.3 Billion U.S. Settlement Over Emissions Fraud
Jan 11 2017 // Volkswagen AG confirmed on Tuesday it has negotiated a $4.3 billion draft settlement with U.S. regulators to resolve its diesel emissions troubles and plans to plead guilty to criminal misconduct. The guilty plea is part...
MF Global’s Corzine to Pay U.S. Regulator $5 Million Over Firm’s Collapse
Jan 10 2017 // Jon Corzine, former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs co-chairman, will pay a $5 million civil fine to settle a U.S. regulator’s lawsuit over the 2011 collapse of his commodity brokerage, MF Global Holdings...
Floods, Other Major Climate Events Cost U.S. $46 Billion, 138 Lives in 2016
Jan 10 2017 // During 2016, the United States experienced 15 weather and climate disasters with insured and uninsured losses exceeding $1 billion each across the United States. Overall, these events resulted in the deaths of 138 people...
Is Soft Market Bottoming? A.M. Best Points to Some Promising Signs
Jan 10 2017 // Some observers believe the bottom of the reinsurance market may be in sight because brokers are having greater difficulty filling out underpriced programs and further concessions in terms are difficult to obtain, according...
Louisiana Governor: Homeowners Should Get Flood Plan Money by April
Jan 9 2017 // Louisiana has submitted its plan to spend $438 million in federal flood aid, and Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration says money should begin flowing for recovery work by April, even as the state continues to...
Supreme Court Lets Stand Websites’ Liability Shield in Child Sex Trafficking Case
Jan 9 2017 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand a lower court’s decision that an online advertising site accused by three young women of facilitating child sex trafficking was protected by a federal law that has shielded...
ICAT Syndicate 4242 & Neon Partner to Underwrite Large U.S. Property
Jan 9 2017 // ICAT Syndicate 4242 at Lloyd’s, a U.S. catastrophe-exposed property underwriter, and Neon, a specialist Lloyd’s underwriter, have partnered in a reciprocal capacity arrangement to bring additional per risk...
UK Legal Action Launched Against Volkswagen over Emissions Scandal
Jan 9 2017 // A British law firm has launched legal action against Volkswagen, seeking thousands of pounds of compensation each for UK drivers affected by the carmaker’s emissions scandal. The German company is involved in...
How to Help Insureds Manage Customer Privacy Risk
Jan 9 2017 // Insurance carriers and agents have come to learn that increased data can lead to greater risk for insureds, and they are increasingly advising businesses to disclose data collection practices while seeking to gain...
U.S. to Study Sand from Bahamas to Protect Florida Coast
Jan 9 2017 // A potential solution to a troublesome sand shortage off Southeast Florida is tucked away in a massive water resources funding bill President Barack Obama signed into law last month. The 2016 Water Resources Development Act...
East Regulation Report Card: Vermont Ranks Best for 3rd Straight Year
Jan 9 2017 // The R Street Institute, an industry think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., found Vermont has the best insurance regulatory environment in the U.S. for the third straight year in its annual Insurance Regulation...
Canada’s 2016 Nat Cats Bring Record Insured Damages of $3.7B
Jan 6 2017 // Insured damages from Canadian natural catastrophes during 2016 topped C$4.9 billion (US$3.7 billion) – smashing the previous annual record of C$3.2 billion (US$2.4 billion) set in 2013, according to the Insurance Bureau...
Federal Insurance Chief McRaith Leaving Post on Jan. 20
Jan 6 2017 // Michael McRaith, who has served as director the Federal Insurance Office since its creation in 2011, is resigning his post as of Jan. 20. as the Trump Administration begins. McRaith announced his plan to leave the agency...
U.S. Claims Home-Networking Firm D-Link Poses Hacking Risk
Jan 6 2017 // A U.S. consumer protection watchdog sued a Taiwan-based maker of home-networking equipment over claims that lax security left its products vulnerable to hackers. The Federal Trade Commission alleged that D-Link Corp. and a...
Judge Rules VW Must Face U.S. Investor Lawsuit Over Diesel Scandal
Jan 6 2017 // Volkswagen AG and former Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn must defend an investor lawsuit in California over the company’s diesel emissions cheating scandal, a U.S. judge has ruled. The plaintiffs, mostly...
Utah Could Have Strictest DUI Limit in U.S. Under This Proposal
Jan 5 2017 // A state lawmaker wants to make Utah’s DUI threshold the strictest in the nation by lowering the blood-alcohol content limit to 0.05 percent. Though state numbers show alcohol-related driving deaths and DUI arrests...
How to Gain ‘Digital Trust’ of Employees in Age of Internet of Things
Jan 5 2017 // Employers will need to accept tradeoffs to foster “digital trust” with employees if they want to gather the workplace data necessary to realize the full benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the sharing...
New Hurricane Research Looks Like Good News for Atlantic Coast
Jan 5 2017 // Active Atlantic hurricane periods, like the one now, are not necessarily a harbinger of more, rapidly intensifying hurricanes along the U.S. coast, according to new research performed at the University of...
Judge Halves Jury’s $1 Billion Punitive Damages Award in J&J Hip Implant Case
Jan 4 2017 // Johnson & Johnson won a ruling cutting almost in half a $1.04 billion jury award to patients who accused the company of hiding defects in its Pinnacle artificial hips that had to be surgically removed. A judge on...
National Flood Insurance Program Secures $1 Billion in Reinsurance for 2017; 25 Reinsurers Participate
Jan 3 2017 // For just the second time in its history, the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has reinsurance to help it weather major storms. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which manages...
