Business Insurance

Quirky insurance flick makes list of quarantine must-stream

An insurance agent from a small town in Wisconsin hits up a regional insurance conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and it changes his life forever.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Insurer must defend Illinois nail salon in biometrics suit

An Illinois appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that an insurer must defend a nail salon charged in a putative class action with sending a customer’s fingerprints to a third-party vendor in an alleged violation of the Illinois Biometric Inf...

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Vermont regulator relaxes rules for captive board meetings

Vermont-domiciled captive insurers that are unable to hold a board meeting in the state in 2020 due to ongoing disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic can request a temporary waiver in writing from the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Claims manager expands decontamination service

Crawford & Co. has expanded its Contractor Connection decontamination service to clean and restore sites in the U.S. exposed to the coronavirus to help minimize business interruption, the Atlanta-based claims manager said in a statement Tuesday.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Initial loss estimate for cyclone Sabine $1.7M: Perils

Zurich-based catastrophe data provider Perils AG said Tuesday that the initial loss estimate for extratropical cyclone “Sabine,” which hit the British Isles and Western and Central Europe from Feb. 9-11, is 1.55 million euros ($1.67 million), based o...

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Fitch adds London to insurance markets hit by virus concerns

Fitch Ratings Inc. on Tuesday added the London market to the list of international insurance markets for which it moved its outlook to negative from stable over coronavirus concerns.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

NCCI cancels annual symposium, schedules virtual conference

The National Council on Compensation Insurance announced Tuesday that it is reconfiguring its Annual Issues Symposium 2020 as a free virtual event due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Elite hackers target WHO as coronavirus cyberattacks spike

(Reuters) — Elite hackers tried to break into the World Health Organization earlier this month, sources told Reuters, part of what a senior agency official said was a more than two-fold increase in cyberattacks.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

‘Federal forum’ ruling could cut defense costs, D&O rates

A Delaware Supreme Court ruling last week that restricts some shareholder lawsuits to federal courts will significantly lower defense costs and could eventually ease the pressure on rising directors and officers liability insurance rates, experts say...

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Delaying Olympics could cost Japan nearly $6 billion

Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus at Japan's Kansai University, said that delaying the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by a year could cost the economy nearly $6 billion.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Bushfire-related claims surpass $1 billion

Data from the Insurance Council of Australia show that bushfire-related claims had surpassed $2 billion Australia ($1.2 billion) as of March 18.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Insurers in Japan, South Korea face increased risk from outbreak

U.S.-based Moody's Investors Service Inc. said that insurers in South Korea and Japan face increased risk from the coronavirus outbreak despite having less than 100 virus-related deaths each.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

US firm halts production at Romania plant amid outbreak

U.S.-based trailer equipment manufacturer Horizon Global Corp. has temporarily halted production at its manufacturing facility in Romania's Brasov county in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

2.5 million barrels oil production stalled

Data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. showed that issues like loss of power at the Akpo terminal, and equipment failure and pipeline leaks at other terminals stalled the production of more than 2.5 million barrels of crude oil in November.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Insurers concerned about regulator's data transparency move

The Insurance Council of Australia is concerned that the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's plan to make general insurance data more transparent would weaken competition and concentrate more market power in certain product classes.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

Energy firm insures Bulgarian properties with Uniqa

Several Bulgarian units of Austria-based energy group EVN AG have signed contracts worth nearly 22 million Bulgarian levs ($12 million) with insurer Uniqa Bulgaria to insure their properties.

Posted: Mar 24, 2020

High school coach applicant’s sex bias claim reinstated

A divided federal appeals court reinstated a sex discrimination charge filed by an experienced coach who was rejected twice for coaching jobs by a school district, saying a court should look at all the evidence, not just for one piece that proves the...

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Zurich and Axa units not obligated to pay defense costs

Units of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. and Axa SA , who were excess insurers for a now bankrupt investment advisory firm, are not obligated to pay $7.7 million in unreimbursed defense costs based on the terms of their claims-made policies, a federal ap...

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

AssuredPartners buys Las Vegas agency

AssuredPartners Inc. has bought Las Vegas-based Aniello Insurance Agency Inc., the brokerage said in a statement Friday.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

French insurers to contribute $216M to solidarity fund

(Reuters) — French insurance lobby FFA said on Monday insurers would contribute up to 200 million euros ($216 million) to funds set up by the government to help companies deal with a significant drop in activity due to the coronavirus crisis.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Uber urges coronavirus stimulus include gig workers

(Reuters) — Uber Technologies Inc.'s chief executive on Monday called on President Donald Trump to include independent drivers and delivery workers in the planned $1 trillion coronavirus stimulus package and urged U.S. lawmakers to change labor laws...

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Allianz names Kiernan to North American reinsurance post

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE said Monday it has named Peter Kiernan as head of North American reinsurance in its risk transfer division.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

State-run comp insurer may defer premium payments

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation on Saturday announced that $200,000 in insurance premium installment payments due for March, April and May for the current policy year may be deferred until June 1, 2020, due to coronavirus pandemic hardships.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Class action certification reversed on injured truckers’ suit

More than 40 injured truck drivers who claim their trucking company improperly forced them to live in another city for medical care and light-duty work don’t have enough “commonality” in their workers compensation cases for a class action, the Suprem...

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Ransomware attacks soar in 2019: Beazley

Reported ransomware attack notifications against Beazley PLC clients increased 131% in 2019, with the sums demanded by cyber criminals increasing exponentially, the insurer said, in a report issued Monday.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020