A burning question for insurers
12 November 2012
Another day and yet another scientific report has demonstrated the risks linked with natural disasters are rising…
Analysis
Cracking the code: key questions of the Enright review
05 November 2012
The General Insurance Code of Practice is to undergo its biggest overhaul since its inception in 1994…
The factors that led to north Queensland’s strata cover crisis
29 October 2012
The Australian Government Actuary’s report on strata title pricing in north Queensland provides no comfort for unit owners faced with huge premium increases – but it does shed light on the underlying factors…
Is conciliation the way forward?
22 October 2012
Insurance complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service are rising, even when natural disaster claims are excluded…
Is the local liability market profitable?
15 October 2012
The liability insurance sector seems to be booming, according to recent data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority…
AIG: back from the brink
08 October 2012
Four years ago the insurance industry was rocked by the news that the world’s largest and best-known insurer, American International Group, was set to lose its AA credit rating due to massive exposures…
The search for certainty on D&O
01 October 2012
Moves to reduce individual directors’ liability for corporate fault should cut risks in directors’ and officers’ cover and lead to cheaper premiums…
Voltaire would cringe at APRA’s new powers
24 September 2012
French Enlightenment writer Voltaire said that with great power comes great responsibility…
Reinsurers optimistic for January 1
17 September 2012
The Reinsurance Rendezvous in Monte Carlo has wrapped up for another year, with major reinsurers talking the market up before the crucial January 1 renewal period…
Dancing the reinsurance dance
10 September 2012
The great and the good of the insurance and reinsurance industry are currently meeting in Monte Carlo for the pow-wow that is the annual Reinsurance Rendezvous, and pundits are tipping a calmer event…
Christchurch forces new realities on New Zealand insurance
03 September 2012
The devastating Christchurch earthquakes were always going to have a massive impact on the New Zealand insurance industry. While the country’s geological history and its position astride the Pacific’s…
Can do better: insurers get a mixed report card
27 August 2012
Reaction to the full and half-year profit results of Australia’s major listed insurers have been mixed, to say the least…
Money makes the insurance world go round
20 August 2012
The cause of the current spate of musical chairs taking place at the top end of the local insurance broking sector can be traced back as far as the early 1990s…
Microinsurance opens new insurance markets
13 August 2012
People in developing countries may not have much material wealth to insure, but providing them with basic cover does give insurers an entrée to rapidly growing economies…
Now is the time for insurers to embrace social media
06 August 2012
The financial services industry, including insurance, has not come to grips with the use of social media…
Olympics are an anxious event for underwriters
30 July 2012
With the London Olympics now in full swing, athletes and their families have their fingers crossed and their hearts in their throats…
Distribution becomes institutionalised. Could the contagion spread?
23 July 2012
While everybody has been watching the machinations of regulatory reform over the past year, a turf war has broken out in the world of financial services product distribution…
NSW considers impact from ditching levy
16 July 2012
The slow march to abolish inappropriate taxes on insurance continues, with the NSW Government launching a three-month consultation on reforming collection of the state’s Emergency Services Levy…
Rates: Where to from here?
09 July 2012
Yet again, insurers have talked the talk but failed to walk the walk, with brokers reporting lower-than-expected rises at the mid-year commercial renewals…
Government signals a backflip on opt-out flood cover
02 July 2012
The Federal Government has given its strongest signal yet that it will not pursue the introduction of opt-out flood insurance with its announcement of a range of soft measures aimed at…