Will Frank’s Formula survive?
02 April 2012
In the early 1970s, a pair of American economists devised what would later be dubbed the Midas Formula – a method of accurately pricing stock options that had eluded economists for decades…
Analysis
Stamp duty on insurance: An issue that won’t go away
26 March 2012
The House of Representatives committee investigating strata insurance in Far North Queensland has called for the Queensland Government to freeze stamp duty on strata premiums north of the Tropic of Capricorn…
Steadfast’s plan to unlock value through a public float
19 March 2012
Steadfast Chairman Robert Kelly isn’t known for holding back on the colourful language when he has something he really wants to say…
Code of practice: Different year, same issues
12 March 2012
When comparing the data from the latest Financial Ombudsman Service General Insurance Code of Practice Overview with that of the previous year, a pattern emerges of systemic failings…
Love to hate ’em
05 March 2012
The complexity of the insurer/consumer relationship can be summarised thus: insurers are trusted and loathed in equal measure while customers are satisfied with their insurer yet itching to switch…
Flood cover: Insurers are still waiting
27 February 2012
Insurers have started to act on flood cover – but will the Federal Government step up to the mark and do its share of the heavy lifting required to prevent a repeat of last year’s disasters…
Can the insurers’ code changes keep the critics at bay?
20 February 2012
In amending the General Insurance Code of Practice and expediting its next independent review, the Insurance Council of Australia is hoping to appease Canberra politicians hell-bent…
Backlash building on compulsory flood cover
13 February 2012
First the deluge, now the storm…
Strata insurance is doing the industry no favours
06 February 2012
Strata insurance could become the Achilles heel of the insurance industry…
GI insurers in good shape after disasters
30 January 2012
Most Australian general insurers are making a profit despite a string of natural disasters, but some clocked up spectacular losses during the 2011 financial year…
Foreign insurers step back from China
12 December 2011
The Chinese insurance market is continuing to be a tough challenge for foreign insurers, with banks entering the market and domestic competitors getting favourable treatment from regulators…
FOFA lays down the law on brokers’ best interests
05 December 2011
There is a new world on the horizon for brokers…
Industry needs to talk about a role for comparator sites
28 November 2011
Comparator sites in the UK are now wielding significant power, especially in motor insurance…
Flood insurance: NDIR’s report ties it all together
21 November 2011
The report of the Natural Disaster Insurance Review, which was released to the public last week, lays out a clear structure for a national flood insurance system…
Reinsurers v insurers: Rates starting to harden
14 November 2011
Reinsurance has served disaster-affected communities well this year, but there was always going to be a price to pay and it is being reflected in the reinsurers’ results for the September quarter…
Would you buy AMI?
07 November 2011
At first glance, New Zealand’s second-largest home and contents insurer AMI should be attractive to another insurer wanting to buy a customer base of 485,000 clients and about a third…
Insurers again prove their value, but is anybody listening?
31 October 2011
In the same week that insurers were slammed by a major consumer group over their handling of claims related to this year’s natural disasters, Suncorp has released a report quantifying…
Reinsurance: NZ breathes again
24 October 2011
Money has triumphed over fear in the New Zealand reinsurance market. Higher reinsurance rates are attracting reinsurers who have not normally operated in the market, offsetting fears…
FOFA: In whose best interest?
17 October 2011
How financial advisers are paid has been the headline act of the Future of Financial Advice legislation, but another issue has much wider implications…
Public versus private – this year’s cats revive the debate
10 October 2011
When insurers fail to meet public expectations there are inevitably calls for state intervention, and this year’s catastrophes have revived calls for governments to step into the insurance market…