Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
AIA Buys Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Life Insurance Business for A$3.8B
Sep 21 2017 // AIA Group Ltd. agreed to buy Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s life insurance business for A$3.8 billion (more than $3 billion), in its most ambitious foray beyond the Hong Kong-based company’s core markets in...
AIA and Zurich Make Separate Bids for Australian Insurance Businesses: Reuters
Sep 15 2017 // Hong Kong-based insurance giant AIA Group Ltd. has shown interest in buying Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s insurance business, which is likely to be valued at about $4 billion, people with knowledge of the matter...
QBE Group CEO Neal to Exit; Regan to Succeed Him in January
Sep 13 2017 // QBE Insurance Group today announced that John Neal, Group chief executive officer, will be stepping down after five years in the role. The board of directors has appointed Patrick Regan, chief executive officer Australian...
Australia’s CBA Threatened with Large Class Action over Money Laundering Charges
Aug 23 2017 // A law firm threatened on Wednesday to file a class action suit against Commonwealth Bank of Australia for allegedly failing to disclose that it was facing money-laundering charges, in the latest headache for...
QBE H1 Profits Rise 73% on Australia/N. Zealand Rate Hikes, N. America Growth
Aug 21 2017 // QBE reported a healthy profit hike during first half of 2017, despite heightened claims activity in its Emerging Markets’ division, which reported a combined ratio of 110.8 percent. This poor performance has led to...
Australia’s New South Wales to Inspect High-Rise Cladding over Fire Safety
Jul 31 2017 // Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) government will inspect more than 1,000 residential and commercial towers that may have potentially unsafe cladding and introduce new fire safety reforms to avoid a deadly inferno...
Australia Class Action Filed Against Toyota, Honda & Mazda over Faulty Air Bags
Jul 27 2017 // A Sydney lawyer announced on Tuesday a class action lawsuit against Toyota, Honda and Mazda seeking refunds for cars fitted with faulty air bags from Takata that have been linked to 18 deaths around the world. Lawyer...
Australia Watchdog Examines if Recalled Air Bags Were Replaced by Faulty Devices
Jul 25 2017 // Australia’s consumer watchdog said on Monday it was urgently seeking information from the government regulator and car manufacturers after a magazine reported that recalled Takata air bags were being replaced by...
AIR Worldwide Launches Severe Thunderstorm Model for Australia
Jul 24 2017 // Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide announced it has released a severe thunderstorm model for Australia, which captures all three sub-perils – hail, tornado and straight-line wind – to help companies assess...
The Hanover’s Chaucer Acquires SLE Holdings, Sydney-Based MGA
Jul 5 2017 // The Hanover Insurance Group Inc. announced that Chaucer, the company’s international specialty insurance group, has acquired SLE Holdings, a market-leading Lloyd’s managing general underwriting agency based in...
Australian Women File Class Action Suit Against J&J over Pelvic Mesh Implants
Jul 5 2017 // Australian women have brought a class-action case against Johnson & Johnson over complications arising from vaginal mesh implants – a lawsuit that follows many others in the United States, Canada and Europe. The...
Ironshore International Names Lewis to Lead Australia Unit
Jun 8 2017 // Ironshore International has appointed William Lewis as managing director of Ironshore Australia Pty Ltd. (IAPL) to be based in the Sydney office. Lewis, a private equity attorney, is a specialist in private equity...
QBE Taps Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Ford as Group CFO
May 26 2017 // QBE Insurance Group Ltd. has appointed Michael Ford as group chief financial officer. Ford is currently the deputy CFO for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). He joined the bank in 2005 and held a number of senior...
Petplan Australasia Announces Affiliation with MS Amlin
May 22 2017 // Petplan Australasia announced that MS Amlin Syndicate 2001 of Lloyd’s will become the new underwriter of its pet insurance plans in Australia – a move that is designed to enhance policyholder benefits with broader...
Sompo Develops Nat Cat Model for NW Australia Offshore Oil & Gas Installations
May 17 2017 // Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc. (SJNKI) and Sompo Canopius AG are launching a natural catastrophe risk model for north-west Australia offshore oil and gas installations. The model development was carried out by Sompo...
AXA Launches Unit Focusing on Innovation, New Business Models with Phillips as CEO
May 17 2017 // AXA has appointed Joyce Phillips as chief executive officer of a new business unit dedicated to customer innovation and new business models. Phillips becomes a member of the management committee of AXA Group and reports...
U.S. Weather Remains Biggest Driver of Global Insurance Losses in 2017: Aon
May 10 2017 // Severe weather in the U.S. remains the largest contributor to global insurance losses in 2017 after April continued the trend with multi-billion dollar losses for public and private insurers, according to Impact...
Australia’s Cyclone Debbie Estimated to Cost Insurers US$825.7M: PERILS
May 9 2017 // The initial estimate of insured property market losses for Cyclone Debbie is A$1.12 billion (US$825.7 million), according to PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organization providing industry-wide catastrophe insurance...
QBE Australia & New Zealand Names Prudential Plc’s Baxter as CRO
May 2 2017 // QBE Australia and New Zealand announced that Mark Baxter has been appointed to the position of chief risk officer. Baxter has recently returned from the UK where he was Prudential’s chief risk officer for the UK and...
Zurich Buys Australia’s Largest Travel Insurer, Cover-More, for US$551M
Apr 13 2017 // Zurich Insurance Group has successfully acquired Cover-More Group Ltd., a leading travel insurance and assistance solutions provider based in Sydney with a strong market position in Australia, India and the U.S. This...
