International & Reinsurance News

Reinsurance Capital Dips 6%, Tightening of Capacity Accelerates: Aon

Global reinsurance capital fell 6% to $590 billion for the first quarter of 2020, Aon reported in its June/July Reinsurance Market Outlook report. The report, which also looks at changes in reinsurance demand levels, hot-button reinsurance wording themes and primary …

Insurance Agency and Brokerage M&A Trends to Watch Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for many businesses across the globe, including the insurance industry. But so far, the insurance broker merger and acquisition (M&A) market has remained active even as the pandemic continues to unfold. Before the pandemic, …

Liberty Specialty Names Rieger Head of Casualty Germany, Succeeding Offenhau

Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM), part of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, has promoted Rainer Rieger as head of Casualty Germany. Rieger, who has worked with the company since 2015, is replacing Detlef Offenhau who recently retired from the role. “Rainer’s experience …

Arch Estimates Q2 Catastrophe Losses Could Hit $225M, Which Include Pandemic Claims

Arch Capital Group Ltd. has estimated a range of pre-tax catastrophe losses of $205 million to $225 million in the second quarter of 2020 across its property casualty insurance and reinsurance segments. Included in these estimates is a range of …

AIR Collaborates with Data Firm, Precisely, to Offer Int’l Address-Level Geocoding

Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide announced that, as part of its Touchstone 2020 software release, clients now can access a premium international address-level geocoding feature to enhance the quality of their exposure data. The geocoding is provided by Precisely, a …

Many Skin Whitening Creams Containing High Levels of Mercury Are Sold Online

Skin-whitening creams identified as containing potentially dangerous levels of mercury continue to be sold online more than seven months after a watchdog group raised the alarm, including on platforms run by eBay, Amazon.com and Alibaba, a Reuters review of the …

Anglo-Australian Miner BHP Faces $6.3B Lawsuit in UK over 2015 Brazil Dam Disaster

More than 200,000 Brazilian people and groups will next week kick off a 5 billion-pound ($6.3 billion) lawsuit against Anglo-Australian miner BHP in Britain over a 2015 dam failure that led to Brazil’s worst environmental disaster. The group claim, one …

UK Watchdog Urges Big 4 Accounting Firms to Challenge Clients as Audit Quality Slides

The dominant accounting firms must do a better job of challenging their clients in order to reach a satisfactory level of audit quality, the industry’s UK watchdog said. The so-called Big Four — KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers …

West African Coast Re-Emerges as Hotspot for Piracy, Kidnappings: Allianz

The West African coast has overtaken Southeast Asia as the worst area for piracy and kidnappings reported at sea last year, with the number of seafarers seized rising by more than 50%, according to a study. The area, known as …

Second Wave of Coronavirus Lockdowns Could Weaken Insurers’ Capital Buffers: S&P

Global insurers have proven resilient during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, as their capital strength has helped stave off widespread downgrades; however, insurers’ capital buffers will erode through the second half of the year as financial market losses …

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