Latest Market Headlines

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

Californians Pushed by Wildfires into High-risk Insurance Market

Sep 21 2015 // There are lots of reasons people live in California’s Modjeska Canyon. Nestled against the mountains and abutting the Cleveland National Forest, the area has abundant wildlife and access to nature, yet is just a 20...

Monte Carlo 2015: Reinsurers Reexamine How They Do Business

Sep 21 2015 // The annual Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo, Monaco traditionally focuses on one or two signatory concerns within the industry. This year, things were different. The 2,700 registered attendees were faced with...

Why Now Is Time to Privatize Flood Insurance: A Candid Conversation with Hiscox USA CEO Walter

Sep 21 2015 // The private insurance industry is ready and anxious to take on flood risk, and politicians should reform the federal program now to take advantage of this interest, according to the U.S. executive of a leading specialty...

Former Microsoft Executive Hartnett Named ACORD Innovation Chief

Sep 17 2015 // The insurance industry’s standards organization, ACORD, announced that Bill Hartnett, former financial services and insurance head at Microsoft, has been named its head of innovation, charged with bringing new ways...

Guy Carpenter Report Examines Major Emerging Risks Facing Re/Insurers

Sep 16 2015 // A report published by Guy Carpenter & Co., released Sept. 2015, identified four key areas of emerging risk for re/insurers: cyber risk, technology risk, casualty catastrophe and reserving, and life, health and...

Why Now Is Time to Privatize Flood Insurance: a Candid Conversation with Hiscox USA CEO Walter

Sep 14 2015 // The private insurance industry is ready and anxious to take on flood risk, and politicians should reform the federal program now to take advantage of this interest, according to the U.S. executive of a leading specialty...

“Biggie Award” Winners Announced at Big Minivention

Sep 9 2015 // BIG Independent Group Awards Accolades at Annual Northern California Event Rancho Cucamonga, CA, September 9, 2015 – The BIG Independent Group (www.biginsusa.com), an association of independent insurance agents and...

Pending Mergers Will Harm Health Insurance Competition: AMA

Sep 8 2015 // The nation’s doctors say the proposed mergers among four of the nation’s largest health insurance companies would violate federal antitrust guidelines and seriously erode health insurance competition. According...

Xuber Survey Finds London Insurance Execs Fear ‘Brexit’

Sep 8 2015 // Xuber, Xchanging’s insurance software business, has published a survey, which concludes that almost three-quarters (71 percent) of insurance executives believe a UK exit from the European Union would be bad for...

BHSI Enters Australia Construction Insurance Market; Appoints Team Execs

Sep 8 2015 // Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company (BHSI) announced it is providing comprehensive insurance and services for the construction industry in Australia and named a team of executives to oversee key areas of its...

Hurricane Katrina: Every Number Tells a Story

Sep 7 2015 // In a 25-year span leading up to 2005, homeowners insurers in Louisiana wrote a total of $13 billion in homeowners insurance premium, from which they earned $1 billion in profit, according to the chief actuary at the state...

10 Drivers of Surplus Lines Growth

Sep 7 2015 // Times are good for surplus lines professionals. The surplus lines industry reached new heights in 2014, growing direct premium written (DPW) in 2014 to $40.2 billion – the highest point in history, reports A.M....

Lloyd’s and its Syndicates 2015 – Adapting to Changing Times

Sep 7 2015 // If one word could describe Lloyd’s of London, it would be “change.” There are very few business enterprises that have stayed in business as long as Lloyd’s – 327 years. It has survived wars,...

The Hard Market That Wasn’t

Sep 7 2015 // Are Your Carriers Positioned For What Comes Next? For the U.S., property/casualty industry recent events have mimicked the boxing idiom one, two punch. P/C industry professionals haven’t seen a combination of an...

Surplus Lines Posts Record-Breaking Year for 2014

Sep 4 2015 // The surplus lines industry broke records in 2014, growing direct premium written (DPW) in 2014 to $40.2 billion — the highest point in history, reports A.M. Best’s “2014 Special Report U.S. Surplus Lines –...

Tier 1 Reinsurers More Resilient than Smaller Firms in Current Market: Fitch

Sep 4 2015 // Major tier 1 reinsurers stand to benefit most from a changing reinsurance market and mounting competitive pressures, while small mono-line companies will be the hardest-hit, according to a reinsurance report published by...

A.M. Best: Reinsurance Sector Faces New Reality Shaped by Abundant Capacity

Sep 3 2015 // The reinsurance market is operating in a new reality of abundant capacity from traditional and alternative sources, low interest rates and thinner reinsurance margins, driven by intense competition against shrinking demand...

Towers Watson & Cambridge to Provide Usage-Based Auto Insurance Market Info

Sep 3 2015 // Global professional services company Towers Watson and Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), a telematics technology provider will use “advanced mobile sensing, data analytics and behavioral science,” in an...

Miami Agent Arrested for Operating With Expired License, Stealing Premium Funds

Sep 2 2015 // The Florida Division of Insurance Fraud announced the arrest of Tania Michel, 41, for failing to notify the Department of Financial Services of a federal fraud conviction, continuing to work in the insurance industry after...

P/C Insurance Industry’s Low Unemployment Rate Likely to Go Lower

Sep 1 2015 // The insurance sector has been hiring all year and appears on track to continue to add personnel. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate for the finance and insurance industry was at 2.1 percent...