Business Insurance

Cheers and good lighting: Happy hour goes viral

With a few clicks, co-workers are taking to online work-from-home platforms such as Zoom to do what colleagues do when the day is done: drink.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Supreme Court tosses comedian's racial bias suit against Comcast

(Reuters) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out a lower court's ruling that had given the green light to comedian-turned-media entrepreneur Byron Allen's $20 billion racial bias lawsuit against Comcast Corp. that accused the cable television o...

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

PG&E to plead guilty to 84 involuntary manslaughter counts

(Reuters) — Pacific Gas & Electric has agreed to plead guilty to 84 involuntary manslaughter counts in connection with the 2018 Camp Fire, the most destructive wildfire in California's history.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Swiss insurers in talks with regulator over coronavirus impact

Swiss insurers are in talks with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority about the coronavirus outbreak's impact on their business and capital buffers.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Measures to boost Hong Kong insurance hub status

The Hong Kong government has introduced two insurance bills to strengthen the territory's position as a regional insurance hub.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

General insurance body lowers growth forecast for sector

The Indonesian General Insurance Association has lowered its growth forecast for nonlife insurance premiums for this year.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Italy closes non-essential businesses to stem coronavirus spread

Italy has closed all non-essential businesses as it seeks to stem the spread of coronavirus.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Nonlife premiums rise 14%

Data from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India showed that nonlife insurers' premiums grew 14% year-over-year to 1.73 trillion Indian rupees ($23 billion) in the fiscal first 11 months ended Feb. 29.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Bentley to stop production amid outbreak

Starting March 27, U.K.-based Bentley Motors Ltd. plans to halt production at its car factory in Crewe for four weeks in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Premiums expected to grow by 5% annually

U.A.E.-based investment banking firm Alpen Capital expects insurance premiums to grow at a compounded annual average growth rate of 5% between 2019 and 2024 in Saudi Arabia.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Forced mergers of struggling insurers unworkable: Official

Ekerete Ola Gam-Ikon, insurance consultant in Nigeria, has said it is very doubtful that the National Insurance Commission would be able to force mergers among insurers struggling to meet higher capital requirements.

Posted: Mar 23, 2020

Captive association files claim for event cancellation

The Captive Insurance Companies Association on Friday said it is in the process of filing a claim to determine if the cancellation of its 2020 international conference due to COVID-19 is covered under its event cancellation coverage.

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Health care associations fear lack of protection from virus

A nationwide shortage of N95 masks and newly relaxed standards for personal protective equipment have workers on the front lines treating coronavirus patients and medical associations both praising efforts to ramp up production and protesting federal...

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Rating agency revises outlook for reinsurers on virus impact

Fitch Ratings Inc. on Friday changed its outlook for the reinsurance sector to negative from stable due to increased concerns over financial markets volatility amid the spread of COVID-19.

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Swiss Re has $250M cancellation exposure for Tokyo Olympics

Swiss Re Ltd. has an event cancellation exposure of $250 million to the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games and faces other potential liabilities in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

#MeToo securities suit against Papa John’s dismissed

A federal district court has dismissed a #MeToo putative securities class action lawsuit filed against Papa John’s International Inc. and its former top officials, stating that allegedly false claims about the company’s culture amounted to “generic p...

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Worker may proceed with breach of good faith claim against insurer

A worker who waited more than two years for shoulder surgery and three months for an indemnity check may proceed with his claims of against the insurer and adjuster, a district court held Wednesday.

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Widow of supervisor killed in trench collapse can collect benefits

A small city in South Dakota failed to prove that a supervisor killed in a trench collapse had been engaged in willful misconduct in his failure to use trenching safety precautions and must provide survivor benefits to the man’s widow, the Supreme Co...

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Lakers star catching heat over Facebook photo

A photographer is crying foul over Los Angeles Lakers star Lebron James’s use of a photograph he shot at a game against the Miami Heat, which the basketball star later posted on his Facebook page.

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Bayer mediator says glyphosate talks slowed by coronavirus

(Reuters) — Negotiations between Bayer AG and plaintiff lawyers to settle claims its glyphosate-based weedkillers cause cancer have been slowed by the coronavirus outbreak, according to the mediator in the talks.

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Former Uber exec agrees to plea deal over Google secrets

(Reuters) — Engineer Anthony Levandowski, known for advancing self-driving car technology in the last decade, agreed to plead guilty on Thursday to taking sensitive documents from his former employer Google LLC before joining rival Uber Technologies...

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

The BI Top 10: Week of March 16, 2020

Coronavirus continued to dominate the news this week; eight of the Top 10 stories addressed the outbreak and its potential impact on a range of issues, including business interruption coverage, cybersecurity and workers compensation.

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Locust plague leaves devastation, more to come

A locust plague that has been growing in the Horn of Africa devastated crops in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia last month and is making its way towards Northern Africa and the Middle East.

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Cyber attacks rise as employees work from home amid outbreak

U.S.-based information technology consulting firm Cynet Systems Inc. has analyzed data from Italy and found that companies with higher proportions of employees working from home due to the coronavirus outbreak saw a rise in cyber attacks.

Posted: Mar 20, 2020

Takaful insurer gets approval for majority stake sale

Egypt’s regulators have approved the sale of 75% of Tokio Marine Egypt Family Takaful Co. for nearly 85 million Egyptian pounds ($5.4 million).

Posted: Mar 20, 2020