Insurance Journal

As ChatGPT’s Popularity Explodes, U.S. Lawmakers Take an Interest

ChatGPT, a fast-growing artificial intelligence program, has drawn praise for its ability to write answers quickly to a wide range of queries, and attracted U.S. lawmakers’ attention with questions about its impact on national security and educ...

Posted: Feb 13, 2023

Norway’s $1.35 Trillion Wealth Fund: We Won’t Back Boards Who Fail on Climate

Norway’s $1.35 trillion wealth fund will step up its engagement with companies over their management of climate risk by voting against board members it deems are not doing enough on the issue, it said on Thursday. Investing the state’s re...

Posted: Feb 13, 2023

European Medicines Agency Committee Starts Safety Review of Cold Medicines

A European Medicines Agency (EMA) committee said on Friday it has started a review of decongestant medicines for cold and flu that contain the ingredient pseudoephedrine following safety concerns. The EMA said the review was due to reports of conditi...

Posted: Feb 13, 2023

India’s Kotak Mahindra Bank Weighs Sale of Stake in General Insurance Unit: Sources

Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., backed by billionaire Uday Kotak, is considering selling a minority stake in its general insurance unit, according to people familiar with the matter. The lender is working with an adviser on the potential sale of a …

Posted: Feb 13, 2023

Viewpoint: Used-Vehicle Prices May Be Cresting but Insurers Still Underwater

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” would be an apt description of the last few years for auto insurers. Immediately after a nationwide, months-long driving hiatus caused collisions to plummet and profits to surge, &#823...

Posted: Feb 13, 2023

Cyclone Gabrielle Hits New Zealand Leaving Thousands of Homes Without Power

Tens of thousands of homes in northern New Zealand are without electricity as a powerful cyclone begins lashing the South Pacific nation, bringing high winds and intense rainfall. Cyclone Gabrielle is tracking north-east of New Zealand and the center...

Posted: Feb 13, 2023

Car-Data Firms Flop as Automakers See Dollar Signs in Software

Auto companies promising billions in new software revenue by the end of the decade have been hiring engineers left and right, poaching executives from tech giants and trying to figure out how to process and monetize the oodles of data …

Posted: Feb 13, 2023

Governor Names Yaworsky New Florida Insurance Commissioner

Florida’s governor has named the insurance department’s former chief of staff as new insurance commissioner, filling a position that has been vacant since the former commissioner resigned in late December. Michael Yaworsky, now vice chair...

Posted: Feb 13, 2023

Two Arrested in Homemade Bombing of Georgia Woman’s Home

Georgia authorities have arrested two men, a month after a homemade bomb destroyed part of a home near Savannah. Caleb Kinsey, 33, and Stephen Glosser, 36, were apprehended last week after an investigation into the bombing at the Richmond Hill &#8230...

Posted: Feb 13, 2023

Federal Investigators Subpoena Pilots Over Close Call at JFK Airport

Federal investigators said Friday they have issued subpoenas to force the pilots of an American Airlines jet to sit for recorded interviews about a close call on a runway at New York’s Kennedy Airport last month. The National Transportation Saf...

Posted: Feb 13, 2023

Cinematographer’s Ukrainian Relatives Sue Baldwin over New Mexico Set Shooting

The Ukraine-based relatives of a slain cinematographer are seeking damages in her death from actor Alec Baldwin in connection with a fatal shooting on the set of a Western movie, under a civil lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles. The …

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

New Zealand Braces for Cyclone Gabrielle, Just Days After Devastating Floods

Residents of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, are being asked to prepare for further bad weather as a system described as potentially “the most serious storm to impact New Zealand this century” is forecast to hit in coming days...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

Judge Rejects Family Members’ Bid to Reopen Boeing 737 MAX Plea Deal

A U.S. judge in Texas late on Thursday denied a legal bid by families of the victims of two Boeing 737 MAX crashes to reopen or reject a January 2021 deferred prosecution agreement. Boeing won immunity from criminal prosecution as …

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

Commodity Trader Trafigura Faces $577 Million Loss After Uncovering Nickel Fraud

Commodity trader Trafigura Group is facing more than half a billion dollars in losses after discovering metal cargoes it bought didn’t contain the nickel they were supposed to. nickel fraud Trafigura has spent the past two months uncovering wha...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

People Moves: Liberty Mutual Names Korte to New Underwriting Leadership Position; CFC Appoints Baile...

Liberty Mutual Names Korte to New Underwriting Leadership Position Liberty Mutual Insurance has appointed Dieter Korte as Global Risk Solutions North America chief underwriting officer, middle market. Korte has more than 30 years of underwriting and...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

‘Overworked’ Media Worker Who Died at His Desk Sparks Probe in Thailand

Thailand has launched a probe into the death of a media worker who died at his desk from a heart attack, after allegedly working overtime for extended periods. Labor minister Suchart Chomklin ordered an investigation this week into the death …

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

EU Lawmakers Want to Extend Reach of Draft ESG Oversight of Corporations

A panel of European Union lawmakers on Thursday backed an amendment to extend the reach of groundbreaking draft legislation to force companies to check whether their suppliers use slave or child labor, or pollute the environment. The EU’s execu...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

Ohio Residents Can Return After Air Deemed Safe from Derailment

Evacuated residents can safely return to the Ohio village where crews burned toxic chemicals after a train derailed five days ago near the Pennsylvania state line, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said. Authorities in East Palestine had warned...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

Nevada Lawsuit with Ex-ACLU Observer Settled for $250K

The Reno City Council approved a $250,000 settlement Wednesday with a former American Civil Liberties Union official who was shot by police with rubber bullets while serving as a legal observer at a 2020 civil rights protest in the wake …

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

Hilb Buys Nowell in Mississippi, Alkeme Acquires PEO Exchange in Florida

Hilb Group Buys Nowell Agency in Mississippi The Hilb Group has expanded into Mississippi with the acquisition of The Nowell Agency, the property insurance brokerage and benefits firm announced. The Nowell Agency has offices in Brandon, Greenwood, Tu...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

North Carolina’s 1930s Libel Law Likely Unconstitutional – Federal Appeals Court

A federal appeals court sided again with North Carolina’s attorney general on Wednesday, saying a 1931 libel law is most likely unconstitutional. Josh Stein has sought to block a fellow Democrat from using the law to prosecute him over a &#8230...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

Facebook Hit With $1 Million Fine Tied to User-Privacy Lawsuit

Facebook and its outside law firm were ordered to pay almost $1 million in sanctions for deceitfully denying that it shared users’ private information with third parties without permission. The fine is “loose change” for Facebook an...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

NC House Passes Bill Raising Penalties for Violent Protests

A bill increasing punishments for violent protests following the 2020 demonstrations over George Floyd’s murder passed the North Carolina House on Wednesday despite harsh criticism from social justice advocates. Some bipartisan support signals...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

Public Adjusters Can’t Also Be Appraisers on the Claim, Florida Supreme Court Finds

A public adjuster cannot act as an appraiser for a homeowner they represent when the insurance policy specifies that the appraiser must be “disinterested,” the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The high court affirmed a 2nd District C...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023

Industry Trailblazer, Former Chairman of AXIS Capital, Michael A. Butt, Dies

Albert A. Benchimol, president and CEO, of AXIS Capital has issued a letter of remembrance to colleagues about Michael A. Butt, the company’s former chairman and industry leader, who died on Feb. 8. Benchimol describes Butt as a “towering...

Posted: Feb 10, 2023