Job losses loom in claims management
21 November 2016
Thousands of jobs will go in insurers’ small claims management departments as they switch to automated processes, according to Ernst & Young Director Advisory Steven Girvan…
Local
SSP NZ switches host after outage
21 November 2016
Insurance technology company SSP New Zealand will move to a local data host to avoid a repeat of recent disruptions to its broker clients, caused by a power cut at its UK data centre…
Cost-benefit complexities ‘hamper mitigation decisions’
21 November 2016
Disaster mitigation investment decisions are complex due to difficulties evaluating the benefits, according to the Actuaries Institute’s Natural Disasters Working Group…
Supercomputer starts up to improve weather forecasts
21 November 2016
The Bureau of Meteorology has installed a new supercomputer to improve its weather forecasts…
New Zealand hit by 7.8-magnitude earthquake
14 November 2016
New Zealand was hit by a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake just after midnight local time this morning, causing the death of at least two people and damaging homes and roads…
Brokers vulnerable, Macquarie survey shows
14 November 2016
Brokers have a long way to go before they are considered leaders in innovation, according to Macquarie Business Banking’s latest Insurance Broking Benchmarking Survey…
(Re)insurers record combined $2.4 billion profit
14 November 2016
Insurers and reinsurers produced a combined net profit of $2.46 billion in their last financial years, according to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s latest statistics…
IAG links disasters to GDP
14 November 2016
IAG hopes its new report quantifying the threat natural disasters pose to Australian GDP will spur the Government and wider community into spending more on mitigation…
Public and private ‘must pull together’
14 November 2016
Businesses should reassess their relationships with government during these challenging times, Suncorp CFO Steve Johnston says…
Health and safety reforms raise NZ liability concerns
14 November 2016
Health and safety regulations tightened when new legislation took effect in April, aiming to reduce the nation’s workplace injury and death toll 25% by 2020.
Heat extremes ‘to become normal’
14 November 2016
Extreme heatwaves such as those of 2013, when temperatures approached 50 degrees in some parts of Australia, could represent “just another average summer” by 2035…
Industry weighs up global disaster management forum
14 November 2016
The Australian insurance industry is considering the extent of its involvement in the United Nations-backed Insurance Development Forum…
Kiwi insurers warned to innovate or fade away
14 November 2016
New Zealand insurers must adapt and innovate or become fringe players in the digital age, KPMG says in an industry review…
Driverless cars to have ‘complex’ premium impact
14 November 2016
The shift towards driverless cars will probably have a mixed impact on premiums, according to Munich Re Underwriting Manager Australasia Scott Reeves…
Multiple dilemmas as brokerage gets licence suspension
07 November 2016
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has opted only to suspend Rural & General Insurance Broking’s Australian financial services licence…
Motor vehicle clients happier, survey shows
07 November 2016
About 82% of clients are satisfied with their vehicle insurers, but Roy Morgan Research’s latest survey finds some major insurers well behind in the rankings…
Don’t buy airlines’ travel insurance, says Choice
07 November 2016
Airlines are charging inflated premiums for insurance bought during the online ticket sales process, consumer group Choice says…
Companies have ‘false sense’ of cyber security
07 November 2016
Businesses are leaving themselves wide open to cyber attacks, falsely believing they are well protected, according to a survey by consultant Accenture…
Cyber attacks pose $20 billion threat to economy
07 November 2016
Cyber breaches in major cities could cost the Australian economy up to $US16 billion, according to a study by Lloyd’s and Cambridge University…
Geoscientists develop terrorism blast model
07 November 2016
The Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation can now estimate the financial impact of terrorist bomb blasts in several cities thanks to new modelling from Geoscience Australia…