Business Insurance

Munich Re abandons buybacks amid pandemic

German reinsurance group Munich Re said on Monday it was scrapping a planned share buyback as it reported second-quarter earnings that were depressed by payouts on major events that were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Posted: Jul 20, 2020

Governor, lawmakers call for COVID comp protections

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on Friday announced an executive order is “forthcoming” for workers who presumably contracted COVID-19 on the job, joining a number of states that now have in place such workers compensation protections for essential worke...

Posted: Jul 20, 2020

Employees sue Whole Foods over alleged BLM mask discipline

Whole Foods Market Inc. was sued on Monday by employees who accused the upscale grocery retailer of disciplining and retaliating against workers who wear “Black Lives Matter” face masks on the job, including one who said she was fired.

Posted: Jul 20, 2020

CAC Specialty hires former McGriff Seibels executive risk leader

Brokerage CAC Specialty on Monday named Robert Regueiro, a former executive risk leader at McGriff Seibels & Williams Inc., as senior vice president and market account executive in its financial lines practice.

Posted: Jul 20, 2020

Commercial insurance claims to rise due to lockdown

Industry experts expect a rise in Indian commercial insurance claims in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, due to a lack of maintenance in factories and plants, which have been shut for a long time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Posted: Jul 20, 2020

Regulator seizes control of four insurers

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has seized control of four insurers linked to investment conglomerate Tomorrow Holding Co. Ltd., owned by businessman Xiao Jianhua, who disappeared three years ago amid a corruption investigation.

Posted: Jul 20, 2020

Huge fire engulfs power station in Iran

A huge blaze engulfed Shams Thermal Power Station in the Iranian city of Tabriz on July 19.

Posted: Jul 20, 2020

110 ships carrying hazardous heavy metals abandoned

Malaysia has discovered 110 abandoned container ships carrying 1,864 tons of hazardous heavy metals at the Tanjung Pelepas port in the state of Johor last month.

Posted: Jul 20, 2020

Ship piracy, armed robberies nearly double

A report said that incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia nearly doubled to 51 in the first half of the year, compared with 28 in the first half of last year.

Posted: Jul 20, 2020

Flash floods, landslides cause widespread damage

Flash floods and landslides have caused widespread damage in the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi.

Posted: Jul 20, 2020

Questions remain over effect of COVID presumption laws

Presumption laws for essential workers who acquire COVID-19 may have less of an impact than anticipated on the workers compensation system, but whether it will lead to an increase in claims workers compensation payouts is up for debate, said a group...

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

COVID case filings plateau in June

Case filings citing COVID-19 keywords increased in March and April, leveled off in May and plateaued in June, says a report by a legal analytics firm.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Survey tracks marijuana use before, after drug-screening

Thirty-five percent of marijuana users abstain from cannabis at least a month before a pre-employment drug test, while 28% return to using the drug “immediately or one day” post-test, according to survey results released Friday by New York-based Heal...

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Berkley unit must defend construction firm

A W.R. Berkley Corp. unit has a duty to defend a construction firm charged with defectively designing and constructing homes, said a federal appeals court Thursday, in affirming a lower court ruling.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Rhode Island lawmakers pass firefighter cancer presumption bill

Rhode Island lawmakers passed two bills Thursday that make changes to the state’s workers compensation system, one of which would assume that firefighters diagnosed with cancer acquired it on the job.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Most Nevada businesses comply with COVID guidelines

Nevada health and safety inspectors found that about 88% of the businesses it visited Monday are following state COVID-19 compliance measures.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Wealthy Tennessee family flying high on philanthropy

A well-known wealthy Tennessee family whose patriarch founded the Pilot Corp. chain of convenience stores known as Pilot Flying J announced this week that it is giving $900,000 to a local school district to purchase insurance for Chromebooks.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Companies fined for fatal trench collapse at wind farm

Three companies have been fined more than a half-million dollars in connection with a January trench collapse at a wind farm site near Rainier, Washington, that killed one worker and seriously injured another, the Washington State Department of Labor...

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Amynta acquires surety operations of Aspen Insurance

Amynta Group has acquired the surety operations of Aspen Insurance, the insurance segment of Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd., and will form a strategic partnership with Crum & Forster to write surety as part of the deal, Amynta said in a statement Frid...

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

The BI Top 10: Week of July 13, 2020

Comings and goings at major insurers and brokers have been much in the news this week, with particular interest in the early moves in a multiyear realignment at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Mount Merapi likely to erupt following recent quakes

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency of Indonesia has warned of a potential eruption of Mount Merapi volcano in Central Java following a series of earthquakes that hit the surrounding regions.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Cartier maker's sales plummet amid outbreak

Swiss luxury goods maker Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA's sales fell nearly 50% to around €2 billion ($2.3 billion) in the quarter ended June as the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented levels of disruption.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Heavy rains cause widespread damage in Italy

Heavy rains and flash floods on July 15 caused widespread damage and disruption across the Italian city of Palermo.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

600 flights cancelled as new virus cases emerge

Urumqi Diwopu International Airport in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region cancelled more than 600 flights on July 17, or more than 80% of the day's total, as reports of 10 new coronavirus positive cases fueled concerns of a potential outbreak.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

5.9-magnitude quake hits Panama

An earthquake of magnitude 5.9 struck near Coiba island in Panama on July 16.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020