Industry results: will the bounce-back fall flat?
22 October 2018
Insurers buoyed by a benign year for catastrophes, rising premiums and subdued claims inflation may find the business outlook is about to become more challenging…
Analysis
El Nino looms as a farm-fresh crisis
15 October 2018
Relief for the drought-stricken farming community is unlikely to come any time soon, now an El Nino alert has been issued…
Climate change: Morrison’s coalition of the unwilling
08 October 2018
Shortly after taking the country’s top job in August, Scott Morrison declared that tackling drought was the “most urgent and pressing need right now” for his government…
Disclosure rethink gathers steam as commission ponders
01 October 2018
Making people aware of what their insurance policy covers – and just as importantly what it doesn’t – has been a preoccupation of insurers for more than 20 years. All that has been gained is an understanding that legal necessities don’t mix well with the need for simplicity…
Counting the consequences after a withering week
24 September 2018
As the dust settles from last week’s general insurance hearings at the Hayne royal commission, it’s still too early to know what the long-term impact might be…
Brokers vs insurers: how the war of words erupted
17 September 2018
When it comes to internecine disagreements, the insurance industry is usually pretty placid. Differences of opinion among the various industry tribes are rare, which made the breakout of hostilities between insurers and brokers over the past week unusual, to say the least…
Renewed pessimism grips Monte Carlo
10 September 2018
Reinsurers and their insurance customers are gathering in the Mediterranean playground of Monaco for the annual Rendez-Vous de Septembre, but the mood is anything but playful…
Royal commission: brace for a Hayne crash?
03 September 2018
The long wait is almost over: next week insurance will finally be put under the royal commission spotlight…
A world on fire
27 August 2018
“What the hell is going on? It’s winter.” These were the words uttered by many NSW Rural Fire Service crews as 80 bushfires ripped through the state this month…
Earnings scorecard: top three finding their feet
20 August 2018
The big three of Australian insurance appear to have their mojos back after below-par pricing growth and above-normal natural catastrophe losses over the past few years…
Dive In to help bring change
13 August 2018
The Lloyd’s diversity and inclusion festival, Dive In, is getting bigger by the year…
Brand transparency – or clear as mud?
06 August 2018
Information overload could well be the insurance industry’s fate if Canberra takes up one of the key suggestions in the Productivity Commission’s final competition report…
Mutual disagreement
30 July 2018
Insurance is a complicated business, and sometimes it’s even more complicated. Take for example last week’s report by the Victorian Auditor-General, Andrew Greaves, who has questioned the value councils are getting from mutual insurance schemes…
Cladding fallout: insurers burn building industry
23 July 2018
Insurance impacts from flammable cladding are biting more deeply a year after the Grenfell Tower disaster in London and more than three years after fire raced up Melbourne’s Lacrosse building…
Clause out: last scrap looms over contract terms
16 July 2018
The war over the extension of unfair contract term laws to insurance may have reached its final battle, with the release of Treasury proposals that insurers say will have far-reaching repercussions…
Funeral insurance beset with problems
09 July 2018
Serious concerns over the business practices of funeral insurers are nothing new. Aggressive sales representatives, non-payment, policy changes and cancellations with the loss of premiums paid, along with the targeting of Aboriginals as young as 20 are all issues that have been exposed in the past…
Committee cracks code as pressure grows on insurers
02 July 2018
The latest General Insurance Code of Practice review addresses many areas in which insurers have faced criticism, particularly dealing with vulnerable consumers, but whether it goes far enough remains to be seen, as a raft of inquiries and reviews put financial services under scrutiny…
Widening the parameters on parametrics
25 June 2018
Among the many issues insuranceNEWS.com.au reports on throughout the year is the industry’s continuing efforts to simplify claims resolution processes. It’s a challenge that’s complex and can result in frustrating and expensive legal entanglements…
Class actions: no reprieve for D&O insurers
18 June 2018
The threat of five class actions against AMP and recent reports from Aon and Marsh have shown that challenges in the directors’ and officers’ market will not be dealt with soon…
Pricing debate: the north will rise again
12 June 2018
Granted it’s only a preliminary report, but one can’t help a sense of deja vu reading the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s initial thoughts on its continuing northern Australia pricing probe…