Top International Insurance Journal Stories of 2023

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Yes, another year has flown by, and it’s once again time for the top international Insurance Journal stories of 2023. This year, they are a real hodgepodge of topics, ranging from hard market trends, to faulty wind turbines, to the controversial Lloyd’s cyber war exclusions and warnings about an impending soft market.

In previous years (2018-2021), mergers and acquisitions dominated our top 10 international lists, but this year only two deals entered the top 10 – Brookfield Reinsurance’s proposed purchase of Argo Group International Holdings (at number 6). and the planned acquisition of three US insurance brokers by Zurich Insurance Group’s subsidiary, Farmers Group Inc. (at number 5).

Just because there were additional interesting articles in the top 20 that we didn’t want to leave out, we’ve added 10 more to the list as a New Year’s bonus.

So here we go:

1) January Renewals See Hardest Property Catastrophe Reinsurance Rates in Generation
Coming in at the top of the list was this reinsurance article, which states that a convergence of global events has led to the hardest property-catastrophe reinsurance market in a generation and a “complex,” “grueling” and “late” January renewal season, which went down to the wire. (This year’s renewals proved to be a bit easier).

2) Here Are Details of Quality Issues Affecting Siemens Gamesa’s Wind Turbines
This article about major issues at turbine maker Siemens Gamesa was a big hit with readers, coming in at number 2 in the top 10. Parent company Siemens Energy said fixing the problems was expected to cost the company at least 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).

3) P&O Cruise Ship Crashes Into Oil Tanker, Injuring Passengers
Extreme weather in the form of strong winds (another growing topic for our readers) in August caused the mooring holding a P&O cruise ship to snap. Fortunately, only a small number of people were injured when the ship collided with an oil tanker off the coast of Spain. (Such severe convective storms are causing increasing claims and concerns for insurers as evidenced by related articles at numbers 15, 17 and 19 in our top 20).

4) Scratched EV Battery? Your Insurer May Be Forced to Junk the Whole Car
The trust of this story about electric vehicles is that there is no way to repair even slightly damaged battery packs after accidents, which forces insurers to write off cars with only few miles on the speedometer – leading to higher premiums and undercutting gains from going electric.

5) Zurich’s Farmers Group Seeks More Fee Income Via Acquisition of 3 Brokers for $760M
This article details Zurich Insurance Group’s announcement in November that its subsidiary, Farmers Group Inc. agreed to acquire three insurance brokers of the Farmers Exchanges for US$760 million, which will boost its fee income.

6) Brookfield Reinsurance to Acquire Insurer Argo Group in $1.1B Deal
Financial services firm Brookfield Reinsurance announced in February it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Argo Group International Holdings in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.1 billion.

7) Quebec’s French-First Law Stokes Alarm in Business Community Over Language Police
This story in January described the concerns of businesses in Quebec over a language law – Bill 96 – which requires Quebec-based companies to serve clients and write contracts exclusively in French in some circumstances. Companies, which could be fined along with directors and officers, were worried that the law is too ambiguous and would create an unpredictable business environment.

8) Lloyd’s Cyber War Exclusions: Confusing, Disruptive, but Necessary?
This article describes the rationale behind the rollout of the Lloyd’s cyber war exclusions, which received criticism for the chaos and confusion that it caused. There was agreement that the exclusions are necessary but perhaps the changes could have been better communicated ahead of the rollout in March.

9) Cyber Insurance Market Back From Brink After Onslaught of Ransomware Attacks
The cyber-insurance market, battered by a rash of pandemic-era ransomware attacks, is making a comeback, according to this article, published in February. It noted that price increases were moderating and new capacity was entering the market. While the risks posed by cyber criminals are still enormous, clients have adopted stronger cyber security measures, so claims frequency was declining.

10) Viewpoint: Get Ready Now for the Soft Market (Because It’s Coming)
Written by contributors from boutique insurance consultancy UWX, Tony Buckle and John Carolin, this article analyzes underwriters’ motivation during the soft phase of the market cycle and reminds readers that, while average market prices are the hardest seen in years, some price softening has begun to occur. The authors urge insurers to understand underwriting behavior before the inevitable soft market returns. Another article written by Buckle and Carolin, called Repricing Is Not Reunderwriting, is also in our top 20 list, at number 12.

Now, as a bonus, here are the articles that round out our top 20 for 2023.

11) CFC Executives Walsh and Newman to Step Down After Lloyd’s Misconduct Probe

12) Repricing Is Not Reunderwriting

13) Appetite for Cat Exposures Returns; Reinsurers Stay Disciplined in Mid-Year Renewals

14) Hillary Clinton Calls for Reform of Insurance Sector at COP28 Climate Talks

15) P/C Insurers Face Challenging Claims Dynamics as Frequency, Severity Rise: Swiss Re

16) Major Cyber Attack Could Cost Global Economy $3.5 Trillion: Lloyd’s

17) Insured Losses From Severe Convective Storms in US Top $50B for 1st Time: Aon

18) Earthquakes Deliver Another Blow to Turkey’s Re/Insurance Industry: Reports

19) Reinsurers Cautious About US Regional Property Cat as Storm Losses Rise: Gallagher Re

20) UK Staff Coming Into the Office Now Outnumber Hybrid Workers: Survey

Related Top 10s From Our Other Regions: