December 19, 2018
Japan Post Holdings Co. Ltd. on Wednesday said it will buy 7 percent of U.S. insurer Aflac Inc. for about $2.4 billion, as the postal and financial conglomerate seeks new profit-drivers to counter weak growth prospects. Japan Post, majority-owned by …
December 19, 2018
Global insurance broker Marsh announced the appointments of key leaders for its regional, specialty and placement teams worldwide that will be effective upon closing of the pending acquisition by Marsh’s parent company, Marsh & McLennan Cos., of JLT. The acquisition …
December 19, 2018
EPIC Holdings Inc., parent company of EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants based in San Francisco, has agreed to acquire Integro Holdings Inc., which houses the U.S. operations of New York-based Integro Group Holdings. The acquisition will add 400 team members …
December 19, 2018
RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. and Dutch pension fund manager PGGM announced they have launched Vermeer Reinsurance Ltd. to provide capacity focused on risk remote layers in the U.S. property catastrophe market. PGGM is a Dutch pension fund service provider with €215 …
December 19, 2018
The U.S. auto safety regulator said on Tuesday it is speeding up the process for reviewing whether automakers can deploy self-driving vehicles without devices such as brakes and steering wheels. Automakers must currently meet nearly 75 auto safety standards, many …
December 19, 2018
Williams-Sonoma Inc. sued Amazon.com Inc. in a case that challenges the online retailer’s private label push that started with batteries, baby wipes and phone chargers and has expanded to include clothing, toys and high-end furniture. Amazon’s “Rivet” line includes products …
December 19, 2018
A study of hurricane-hit areas of the United States has revealed a trend of larger homes being built to replace smaller ones in the years following a storm. The research, led by the University of Southampton (UK) and published in …
December 18, 2018
Machine-learning research published in two related papers today in Nature Geosciences reports the detection of seismic signals accurately predicting the Cascadia fault’s slow slippage, a type of failure observed to precede large earthquakes in other subduction zones. The researchers at …
December 18, 2018
According to preliminary sigma estimates from Swiss Re, total economic losses from natural and man-made catastrophes in 2018 declined to USD $155 billion from USD $350 billion in 2017. Global insured losses are estimated to be around USD $79 billion, …
December 18, 2018
Johnson & Johnson on Monday scrambled to contain fallout from a Reuters report that the healthcare conglomerate knew for decades that cancer-causing asbestos lurked in its Baby Powder, taking out full-page newspaper ads defending its product and practices, and readying …