Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
ING Restructures U.S. Asset Management Operations; Announces Joint Venture with ANZ
May 3 2002 // Holland’s ING Group announced that it is combining parts of its U.S. asset management businesses, including the ING Aeltus Group, into ING Investment Management (IIM), its global asset management group, and is...
Australia Extends Aviation Excess Coverage
Apr 12 2002 // The Australian government has joined the U.S., the European Union and other countries in extending excess coverage for terrorist and war risk to the country’s airline industry and related infrastructure. The...
Australia’s QBE Posts $13 Million Loss for 2001
Mar 13 2002 // QBE, the Australian insurer, which actually derives over 80 percent of its business from outside the country, ended its 20 year record of increasing profits with the announcement that of a $13 million loss for 2001. Right...
ISO Acquires 100 Percent of NetMap Analytics
Feb 27 2002 // Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) has acquired 100 percent of NetMap Analytics LLC, a Columbus, Ohio-based software company that produces visual-link analysis technology used to detect fraud in insurance claims. The...
AIR Releases New Earthquake, Typhoon Models for Japan, Australia
Feb 5 2002 // Boston-based Applied Insurance Research, Inc. (AIR), a leading catastrophe modeling firm, has released the 2002 versions of its earthquake and typhoon models for the Asia-Pacific region, in time for the April 1st renewals...
Australian Brush Fire Loss Estimates Rise
Jan 3 2002 // As more than a 100 individual fires continued to rage unchecked around Sydney and other parts of the Australian State of New South Wales, more homes and buildings have been destroyed, Australian insurers estimate that...
Australian Fires Still Unchecked, Losses Rise
Dec 31 2001 // The brush fires raging near Sydney, Australia’s largest city, (See IJ Website, Dec. 27) continued to burn out of control over the weekend, as milder weather, which was helping the 15,000 firefighters control the...
S&P Downgrades QBE’s Underwriting Units
Sep 19 2001 // The underwriting entities which make up Australia’s QBE Group became the first insurers to be downgraded by Standard & Poor’s following its assessment of the group’s exposure to the World Trade...
HIH Creditors May Get Only Half of Amounts Owed
Sep 4 2001 // Tony McGrath, the provisional liquidator for failed Australian insurer HIH, indicated that creditors of the bankrupt company may get only about 50 cents on the dollar. New loss estimates have put HIH’s shortfall as...
Australia’s QBE Posts Profit Gains for 1st Half
Aug 30 2001 // Helped by recent acquisitions, QBE Insurance, Australia’s second largest general insurer after NRMA, posted a strong 56 percent gain in interim net profits to A$122 million (U.S.$64.4 million) for the first half of...
$2.8 Billion – Latest HIH Loss Estimate
Aug 28 2001 // The loss estimates for Australia’s HIH continue to mount. Last May they appeared to have leveled off at around U.S.$2.1 billion, but new information released by the liquidators now show they could go as high as U.S....
Crawford Joins TSR Consortium, Expands in Australia
Aug 23 2001 // In two moves aimed at strengthening its international presence, Atlanta-based Crawford & Co. announced that it would join the TropicalStormRisk (TM) Consortium, and has agreed to acquire Australia’s Central...
Aquila To Enter Australian/New Zealand Weather Derivative Market
Aug 20 2001 // Aquila, Inc., the Kansas City-based energy and risk management company, announced that it has entered into a partnership agreement with Australia’s Macquarie Bank to begin marketing weather derivative products there...
S&P Affirms AMP ‘AA’ Ratings, Outlook Negative
Jul 3 2001 // Standard & Poor’s affirmed the double-‘A’ counterparty credit ratings and insurer financial strength ratings on the principle operating entities of Australian insurer AMP, but changed the outlook...
Battle Shaping Up Between U.S.- Australian Creditors of HIH
Jun 28 2001 // Several big creditors of failed Australian insurer HIH are pressing ahead with lawsuits in the U.S. aimed at stopping Tony McGrath, the KPMG partner appointed as provisional liquidator, from marshaling HIH’s U.S....
Fortis Sells Australian Unit to CGNU
Jun 15 2001 // Australia’s AMP confirmed ongoing rumors that it would sell its general insurance business by closing a deal the Queensland-based insurance and financial group Suncorp Metway Ltd., which agreed to buy all its holding...
Fortis Sells Australian Unit to CGNU
Jun 14 2001 // The Belgo-Dutch financial services group Fortis announced the sale of its Australian property insurance unit to the U.K.’s CGNU for € 205 million ($379 million) in cash. Fortis indicated that, while profitable,...
HIH Liquidator Confirms Minimum $1.4 Billion Loss
May 28 2001 // KPMG partner Tony McGrath, the provisional liquidator for Australia’s HIH Insurance Ltd., released his provisional estimates on Friday confirming the insurer’s mounting debts – the minimum deficit now...
More Troubles in Australia Following HIH Collapse
May 24 2001 // As estimates of its potential losses mount, the collapse of HIH, Australia’s second largest insurer, continues to cause problems for the government, the insurance industry and numerous policy holders. In an effort to...
Australian Government Steps In As HIH Loss Estimates Mount
May 15 2001 // The Australian government plans to bail out at least some of the policyholders left stranded by the collapse of HIH Insurance last March, as loss estimates continue to mount. However HIH’s U.S.-based subsidiaries,...
