Latest Market Headlines
All the headlines from our Market Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Soft Rates Begin to Hit Results – But Pain Continues at Mid-Year Renewals: Willis Re
Jul 11 2017 // Despite the deterioration many reinsurers saw in the first quarter, mid-year renewals continued their downward pricing trajectory, according to Willis Re in a recent report. Indeed, underlying loss and expense ratios for...
Does Consumer Watchdog Founder Want Asimov-like Rules for Robot Cars?
Jul 10 2017 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv A virtual grin arose on the face of Harvey Rosenfield with the mention of Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. The mention was made during a phone call, but the overwhelming...
State of P/C Insurance Industry, Part 1: The Fate of ‘Hard Market’ Agencies (and Companies)
Jul 10 2017 // Property/casualty (P/C) insurance and group benefits industry is changing faster than ever. Many factors are the parents of such change. In part one of this two part series, I will focus on the more traditional aspects and...
Burand’s State of P/C Insurance Industry Part 2: How to Pick Winners as More Carriers Consolidate or Waste Away
Jul 9 2017 // Editor’s Note: This is the second of two articles by Burand based on his most recent 50-page whitepaper, State of the P&C Insurance Industry 2017. The whitepaper is available from Insurance Journal’s...
Increase in P/C Insurers’ Losses in 2017 Will Again Be Driven by Auto: S&P
Jun 29 2017 // Private auto net incurred losses will increase by nearly 7 percent in 2017 to a new record of approximately $154 billion, reflecting elevated volume and costs of claims, according to a new S&P Global market...
California Broker Launches National Expansion into Captive Insurance Market
Jun 29 2017 // Sacramento, Calif.-based Owen-Dunn Insurance Services has embarked on a national expansion with the launch of ODI Group Captive to meet demand from mid-size business owners for captive insurance. In addition to creating...
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty Opens S. Korea Branch Office; CEO Named
Jun 29 2017 // Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS), Allianz Group’s unit for corporate & specialty insurance business, has opened a branch office in South Korea to serve global corporate clients. AGCS said it has...
Auto Insurance Market to Shrink by 70% by 2050: KPMG
Jun 29 2017 // Autonomous vehicle technology, a rise in on-demand transportation and a shifting of liability to manufacturers will shrink the auto insurance sector by more than 70 percent or $137 billion by 2050, according to updated...
Lloyd’s to Cut 10% of UK Employees on Soft Market Pricing Pressures
Jun 26 2017 // Lloyd’s of London is planning to cut 10 percent of its staff in the UK as the world’s oldest insurance market looks to streamline operations and reduce costs amid continued pricing pressure on its...
House Committee Adds 5 More Bills to Its Flood Insurance Reform Package
Jun 22 2017 // The House Financial Services Committee advanced five flood insurance proposals on Wednesday, adding to the two bills it passed last week. The House measures seek to reform and reauthorize the National Flood Insurance...
Medical Professional Insurance Market in Good Health for Now: A.M. Best
Jun 19 2017 // The U.S. medical professional liability (MPL) insurance sector is stable, with strong capitalization and profitable, albeit declining, operating performance, plus the prospect of positive earnings in the medium term,...
Minding Your Business: Agency of the Future
Jun 19 2017 // Yogi Berra once said: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Ignoring that wisdom, what will the insurance agency business model look like in 10 years or 20 years? Right now there...
U.S. P/C Insurance Industry Keeps Quiet on Trump Exit from Paris Climate Accord
Jun 19 2017 // The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry, which has been facing rising claims bills for extreme weather events, mostly reacted with silence to President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the country from the...
Blockchain Firm Bitfury Teams with Insurance Broker Risk Cooperative
Jun 16 2017 // Blockhain technology company The Bitfury Group said it is partnering with the Washington, D.C. insurance advisory and brokerage firm Risk Cooperative to pioneer blockchain applications in the $60 billion insurance...
House Panel Gets Down to Business on Flood Insurance Proposals
Jun 15 2017 // House lawmakers are weighing seven proposals to renew and reform the federal flood insurance program, an area where there is a good amount of bipartisan agreement that something should be done and even on what to do. The...
In ‘Classic’ Soft Market Battle, Brokers and Carriers Attack Each Other
Jun 14 2017 // Chief executive officers of property/casualty insurance carriers and insurance brokers called each other out last week for engaging in activities they said are “classic signs of a soft market.” During a session...
Protectionism, Cloud Accumulation, Water Stress Among 20 Emerging Risks Facing Insurance Industry: Swiss Re
Jun 13 2017 // Reduced market access, regulatory fragmentation, the return of inflation and cloud risk accumulation pose the largest challenges with the highest downside risk potential in the short term, according to experts at Swiss...
Burand’s State of P/C Insurance Industry, Part 1: Agencies Facing Paradigm Shift
Jun 13 2017 // Editor’s Note: This is the first of two articles by Burand based on his most recent 50-page whitepaper, State of the P&C Insurance Industry 2017. The whitepaper is available from Insurance Journal’s...
N.C. Lawmakers Again Scuttle Bill to Reform Rate Bureau
Jun 11 2017 // Most of the auto insurance industry has for several years been trying to convince North Carolina’s lawmakers to eliminate the last vestiges of the once-common “rate bureau” system, under which the...
The Hartford Launches Nationally Registered Apprenticeship Program
Jun 8 2017 // The Hartford is working to educate college students about opportunities in the insurance industry while helping to make the transition from college to an insurance career an easier one. This initiative comes through its...
