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.
RiskGenius launches COVID-19 risk checklist
27th March 2020
RiskGenius, an insurtech using artificial intelligence to evaluate emerging risks across insurance portfolios, has released a checklist of potential coverage issues associated with the coronavirus pandemic. The checklist has been launched to help carriers assess and quantify potential exposure to the virus, as firms struggle to comply with rapidly changing legislative ... Read the full article
Japanese fundamentals stable despite share plunge: AM Best
27th March 2020
AM Best believes that the credit fundamentals of most re/insurers have not changed dramatically despite the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the Russia-Saudi Arabia oil dispute causing share prices to plunge by 30-40%. While these and other factors continue to present major challenges for the sector, analysts believe that most market players ... Read the full article
KBRA underlines potential for “material earnings event” over COVID-19
26th March 2020
Underwriting losses from the coronavirus pandemic, in particular on the P&C side, could become a material earnings event for certain industrial and commercial line insurers, according to analysts at Kroll Bond Rating Agency. While insurers’ coronavirus-related disclosures have provided some reassurance given the current extreme circumstances, KBRA believes the crisis is ... Read the full article
US health insurers face coronavirus risks on multiple fronts: AM Best
26th March 2020
With coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading rapidly through the US, analysts at AM Best have warned that the outbreak could compound health insurers in the country in a number of ways. According the rating agency, health insurers face major risks not just from claims, but also from economic and operational disruptions. From a claims ... Read the full article
Tremor to launch weekly online ILW auctions
26th March 2020
Programmatic insurance and reinsurance risk transfer marketplace Tremor is set to open weekly online Industry Loss Warranty (ILW) auctions in an effort to ensure the market continues operating during the unfolding coronavirus pandemic. Auctions begin on April 2 and will leverage catastrophe loss estimates for the US, Canada, Japan, and the ... Read the full article
COVID-19 business interruption legal action expands
26th March 2020
US states Massachusetts and Ohio have joined New Jersey in pushing for legal action to eliminate ‘virus’ exclusions on existing business interruption insurance policies. Legislation is aiming to provide more financial support for smaller businesses affected by the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which has now reached almost 70,000 cases in the ... Read the full article
Analysts forecast “very little” COVID-19 impact on property cat reinsurance
26th March 2020
Analysts at JMP Securities have said they expect to see “very little impact, good or bad” on property catastrophe reinsurance lines due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the resulting recession. Looking at property and casualty (P&C) lines more generally, JMP Securities believes COVID-19 and its accompanying economic volatility will be ... Read the full article
Lloyd’s falls to 2019 underwriting loss, COVID-19 drives down solvency ratio
26th March 2020
The specialist Lloyd's of London insurance and reinsurance marketplace has reported an unprofitable underwriting performance for 2019, with its full year results also revealing a decline in its central solvency ratio as a result of financial market volatility driven by the COVID-19 outbreak. Albeit improved on the previous year, Lloyd's has ... Read the full article
AIG life operations may require $3bn extra capital, stress test shows
25th March 2020
New stress tests from Goldman Sachs show that AIG’s life entities could require a capital infusion of up to $3 billion from the holding company, if the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak results in major financial market pressures. Analysts felt that the preferred funding options for such a scenario would be a suspension ... Read the full article
L&H insurers should avoid major COVID-19 impact: KBRA
25th March 2020
Kroll Bond Rating Agency analysts do not generally expect a major impact from COVID-19 on underwriting results in the Life and Health segment while the mortality rate remains substantially lower among the younger age groups than in those over 50. Furthermore, KBRA expects potential mortality spikes to fall within risk management ... Read the full article
WTW tool enables tracking of COVID-19 cases against P&C portfolios
25th March 2020
Global insurance and reinsurance broker Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has announced the addition of a new COVID-19 feature within its Global Peril Diagnostic modelling tool, designed to track pandemic cases against P&C clients' global assets. The new, real-time, risk and analytics feature provides risk managers with up-to-date information on confirmed COVID-19 ... Read the full article
Joint letter calls for EU financial markets to be kept open
25th March 2020
The European insurance and reinsurance federation Insurance Europe is among ten associations calling for the continents’ financial markets to be kept open during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. The group has written to several European and national policymakers and stressed the role financial markets play in providing critical infrastructure for the Europe’s ... Read the full article
Ping An screening system identifies 1,600 coronavirus cases
25th March 2020
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. has announced that its smart audio screening system has successfully identified more than 1,600 suspected cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) to date. Launched in February, the system uses artificial intelligence to help doctors more efficiently and accurately diagnose cases of the virus and ... Read the full article
COVID-19 could cost US commercial health market $251bn in 2020: analysis
24th March 2020
Analysis conducted by California’s insurance marketplace, Covered California, suggests the US commercial health market's projected costs for testing, treatment and care specifically related to COVID-19 could range from $34 billion to over $251 billion in the first year of the pandemic. Over 170 million Americans are in the commercial health market, ... Read the full article
Coronavirus could delay Genworth & China Oceanwide merger
24th March 2020
Mortgage insurer Genworth Financial has said that its planned merger agreement with China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. may be further delayed due to operational disruptions caused by the coronavirus. The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) recently reapproved the proposed acquisition of control by Oceanwide of Genworth's New ... Read the full article
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