Reinsurance News
Coronavirus news
Coronavirus news coverage of relevance to reinsurance and insurance markets.
All of our Covid-19 coronavirus news, analysis and insight related to insurance and reinsurance market impacts can be found below.
The coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic of 2019-20 resulted in significant disruption and threatened losses widely across the insurance and reinsurance markets.
Ratings of Europe’s major reinsurers unaffected by UK BI judgement, says Fitch
28th January 2021
Despite the UK Supreme Court upholding the judgement on the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) business interruption (BI) insurance test case, the amount that flows through to reinsurers is expected to be immaterial and have no impact on the ratings of Europe's big four, according to Fitch Ratings. The much-discussed UK BI ... Read the full article
Olympics cancellation loss could be “mind-blowingly large”, say reports
27th January 2021
Global insurers and reinsurers are facing a loss of up to as much as $3 billion if the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics are cancelled, according to reports. At a loss of between $2 billion - $3 billion, cancellation of the event would drive the largest ever claim in the global event cancellation ... Read the full article
Old Mutual to finalise BI claims
27th January 2021
South African financial services group Old Mutual has announced to its shareholders that it will proceed in the finalisation of all outstanding valid claims for business interruption for affected customers. Old Mutual offers a broad spectrum of financial solutions to retail and corporate customers across market segments in 14 countries. Whether or ... Read the full article
US health insurer ratings performed well in 2020: S&P
25th January 2021
Analysts at S&P Global Ratings have released a report that shows US health insurer ratings performed relatively well in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysts also believe the industry's resilience to the pandemics effects remains to be seen in 2021, whilst predicting credit quality to hold up well. However, this may come ... Read the full article
COVID restaurant ruling may have wider ramifications for re/insurers: analysts
22nd January 2021
Following a landmark pandemic business interruption (BI) ruling by an Ohio judge against Zurich American, analysts at KBW and Credit Suisse have warned that the case could have wider ramifications for the insurance and reinsurance industries. In the recent Ohio case, the federal judge ruled that Zurich must pay out on ... Read the full article
Impact of business interruption ruling is manageable: Moody’s
21st January 2021
Analysts at Moody’s have reported that the recent business interruption ruling by the UK Supreme Court is a credit negative for re/insurers, although the financial impact on individual companies will be manageable, net of reinsurance protection. Additionally, the clarity provided by the judgement should ultimately benefit the industry by ending damaging ... Read the full article
S&P underlines US P/C insurers’ resilience during the pandemic
21st January 2021
S&P Global Ratings expects underwriting results to remain resilient in 2021, supported by continued rate increases in most commercial lines but partly offset by more competitive rates in personal auto. With social distancing measures likely to remain in place well into 2021, analysts expect claims frequency trends to be muted. Assuming a ... Read the full article
Covid-19, Brexit tops LIIBA’s 2021 priorities
21st January 2021
Helping members deal with the pandemic and supporting post-Brexit trading have been outlined as top priorities for the London and International Insurance Brokers’ Association (LIIBA) in 2021. LIIBA's Chief Executive Officer Christopher Croft says Covid-19 will continue to be a focal point for members of the trade body in 2021. "We will ... Read the full article
Pandemic-related risks front and centre for corporates in 2021: Allianz
20th January 2021
The 10th annual Allianz Risk Barometer reveals that exposures related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are considered the top business risks in 2021, with business interruption (BI) taking the top spot for the eighth time. A significant 41% of responses see BI as the top risk to business in 2021, followed ... Read the full article
Swiss Re’s net loss forecast to hit $389mn in 2020, says Berenberg
20th January 2021
Berenberg is anticipating Swiss Re to register a net loss of $389 million for 2020, up from the previous $178 million estimate, with COVID-19 claims driving the earnings downgrade for the year. It's worth noting that while this analysis applies directly to Swiss Re, the widespread nature of COVID-19 could result ... Read the full article
Hiscox able to absorb COVID-19 BI losses: S&P
20th January 2021
Hiscox's capitalisation can absorb additional COVID-19 business interruption losses despite earnings impact, says global ratings agency S&P Global Ratings. S&P believes the Supreme Court's recent COVID-19 BI decision has further depressed Hiscox Group's earnings. The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority brought forward a test case to determine whether certain holders of business ... Read the full article
AXIS announces Q4 losses of up to $205mn from COVID-19 and cats
19th January 2021
Bermuda-based insurer and reinsurer, AXIS Capital Holdings Limited, has announced a preliminary Q4 2020 net claims estimate of between $195 million to $205 million, pre-tax, for catastrophes and weather-related events. Of this range, AXIS states that a significant $125 million, pre-tax, relates to the COVID-19 pandemic, while an additional $70 million ... Read the full article
Industry split over Supreme Court BI ruling
19th January 2021
With the re/insurance industry still coming to terms with the UK Supreme Court's recent business interruption ruling, we polled our industry contacts and had 270 responses on whether or not they agreed with the outcome. Despite a slim majority siding with the decision to uphold the original High Court ruling, responses ... Read the full article
SCOR deems pandemic risk uninsurable
18th January 2021
Experts from global reinsurer SCOR have concluded that pandemics are uninsurable due to insurers not having the capacity to absorb such loss accumulation. This serial element is accentuated even further by the global nature of pandemic risk. Added to this, the geographical diversification of risk portfolios is ineffective and actually compounds the ... Read the full article
COVID BI case exposes policy wordings “lottery”: Mactavish
18th January 2021
According to insurance buyer and claims resolution firm Mactavish, the legal disputes over pandemic business interruption (BI) claims have exposed systematic flaws in the re/insurance market, including vague policy language and potential conflicts of interest for brokers. Last week, the UK Supreme Court upheld an earlier legal ruling that required ... Read the full article
Getting your daily reinsurance news from Reinsurance News is a simple way to receive only the reinsurance industry news that matters, delivered directly to your email inbox.
