Insured losses were down $7bn for the first half of 2019 at $19bn, a decrease of around 27 percent on the same period last year, according to Swiss Re Institute's preliminary sigma estimates.
AIR Worldwide has estimated insured losses from Typhoon Lekima in excess of CNY6bn ($854mn), after the windstorm struck China’s east coast earlier this month, about 200 miles south of Shanghai.
Catastrophe loss data aggregator Perils has increased its insured loss estimate for the winter floods that inundated Townsville, in Queensland, Australia, to A$1.22bn ($825mn).
AIG’s re-underwriting of its general insurance (GI) business, as it seeks to reduce volatility and improve underwriting profitability in the book, has continued with the news of major cutbacks at excess and surplus lines business Lexington.
With a recent rash of high-value refinery losses, the downstream sector could be approaching an inflection point, with more carriers re-thinking their risk appetites
The DRC’s liberalised insurance sector has been slow to attract foreign investment, not least due to the country’s political instability, but change is afoot
With the UK construction industry experiencing mixed fortunes, appetite for underwriting trade credit risks is on the rise, but do market conditions match carriers’ expectations?
Marsh-JLT Specialty suggests movement on upstream energy rates is likely to be slight in 2019, but could the “gentle market upswing” described by Willis Towers Watson turn into a full-blooded push-back?
While Japan can lay claim to the second-largest global economy and the fourth-largest commercial insurance market, it also has an unenviable reputation for repeated major cat losses, finds Helen Yates
New Zealand is looking to move beyond “no-go zones” as the market adjusts to a heightened view of earthquake risk and building codes come under greater scrutiny, finds Helen Yates
Central and Eastern Europe offers some tempting opportunities for the facultative market, if only it can stay in front of the treaty express, writes David Benyon
Protecting the world’s fine art and specie exposures remains a profitable niche for the London market, David Benyon reports
Ron Diaz and Everest Re’s non-nonsense approach to facultative underwriting stresses the need to be both flexible and efficient in order to succeed in the market
Present market conditions mean fac brokers need to be more than just ‘postboxes’ and work harder to understand clients’ risks, says Capsicum Re’s Malcolm Payton
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SECTOR PROFILE: Contingency and product recall
Contingency and product recall risks are as popular as ever as a diversification play, says Sean Farrell, but carriers need to be aware that the nature of some of these risks is changing