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.
Covid-19 shows sensitivity of re/insurers to equity market volatility: Willis Re
17th April 2020
The global reinsurance capital base is expected to take a hit of approximately 5% from the financial impacts of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, reports Willis Re, the reinsurance arm of global brokerage Willis Towers Watson (WTW). The reinsurance broker's Strategic and Financial Analytics teams' 5% estimate is a marked improvement on ... Read the full article
Increased litigation levels to emerge from COVID-19: Analysts
17th April 2020
Analysts at Morgan Stanley have predicted that increased litigation levels will emerge from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its accompanying economic downturn. Jonathan Molot, Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Burford Capital, confirmed to Morgan Stanley that his firm is currently seeing significant growth in the potential demand for litigation financing ... Read the full article
South Carolina & Pennsylvania join push for COVID-19 legislation
17th April 2020
South Carolina and Pennsylvania have joined several other US states in pushing for legislation that would require insurers to retroactively cover business interruption losses related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. At the same time, New York has expanded the scope of its previously proposed legislation, while New Jersey has ordered insurers ... Read the full article
Public-private partnerships needed to tackle pandemic risks, says FERMA
17th April 2020
The Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) has underlined the importance of public - private partnerships in addressing global pandemic risks. In a recent letter, FERMA has called on the European Commission's coordinating response team to take steps to mitigate the impact of future pandemics in light of the ongoing ... Read the full article
COVID-19 to deter M&A activity in 2020: Conning
17th April 2020
With mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the P&C market already slowing through 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to deter further activity through 2020, according to analysts at Conning. Conning noted that M&A activity involving acquisitions of property and casualty insurers last year was down approximately 6% compared to 2019. And with ... Read the full article
Forced COVID-19 payments could “bankrupt” industry: Chubb CEO
17th April 2020
Legal efforts to make insurers retroactively pay for business interruption losses related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could “bankrupt the industry,” according to Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Greenberg said that the insurance industry is “a fundamental part of the economic plumbing” of the US, and ... Read the full article
COVID-19 insured losses are going to be massive, says Allianz CEO
17th April 2020
Oliver Bäte, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of global insurer and reinsurer Allianz, has said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that while the company itself doesn't have large exposures, for the industry, losses from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic are going to be massive. The unprecedented changes and challenges created by ... Read the full article
COVID-19 to drive more reinsurance firming: survey results
16th April 2020
As COVID-19 continues to profoundly influence developments in the re/insurance industry, Reinsurance News has collaborated with its ILS-focused sister-site, Artemis, to take the pulse of the market at this challenging time. The results of the COVID-19 Market Survey are based on responses from hundreds of market ... Read the full article
Swiss Re opens Life Guide underwriting manual to L&H insurers
16th April 2020
Swiss Re is opening access to its proprietary Life Guide underwriting manual to all life and health insurers for 90 days, in a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Life Guide is designed to help users understand risks and how they interact with each other. The underwriting manual includes the ability to reference ... Read the full article
COVID-19 premium adjustments not expected to hit long-term profits: Fitch
16th April 2020
Fitch Ratings does not expect recent premium adjustments announced by property/casualty insurers in response to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to affect long-term market profits or individual company ratings. Driven by unanticipated declines in risk exposures and claims incidence following the economic impact caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, some ... Read the full article
Hiscox sees Covid-19-related business interruption exposure as limited
16th April 2020
Insurer and reinsurer Hiscox expects its exposure to any business interruption losses from the COVID-19 pandemic to be limited, while its Retail segment makes use of significant levels of reinsurance protection. The re/insurer has released a statement explaining that its core policy wordings do not provide coverage for BI as a ... Read the full article
American Financial Group lowers investment forecast due to COVID-19
16th April 2020
American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG) has revised its earnings guidance for 2020 due to the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the financial markets. The company noted that, since providing its 2020 guidance, COVID-19 has had widespread financial and economic impacts, including a significant decrease in both equity and credit ... Read the full article
AM Best maintains negative outlook on UK non-life
16th April 2020
Rating agency AM Best has opted to maintain its negative outlook on the UK non-life insurance market, due to factors such as lower premiums following the COVID-19 pandemic, strong competitive pressures on underwriting performance, and Brexit-related uncertainty. Analysts noted that the underwriting margins of UK non-life insurers are likely to be ... Read the full article
Chartered Insurance Institute extends president, chair term amid COVID-19
16th April 2020
The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has decided to extend the term of the current serving President and Chair of the Board amid disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Nick Turner, Sales and Agency Director at NFU mutual, was appointed as President in 2019. The CII usually appoints a new president and chair ... Read the full article
Arch sees Q1 COVID-19 losses at up to $145m across P/C & mortgage
16th April 2020
Bermuda-based insurer and reinsurer, Arch Capital Group Ltd., has announced estimated pre-tax losses of up to $95 million across its property casualty insurance and reinsurance segments, and losses of up to $50 million in its mortgage segment, as a result of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Arch has underlined the ... Read the full article