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.
Pandemic “reached the limits of insurability”: Swiss Re’s Kielholz
22nd March 2021
Swiss Re Chairman Walter Kielholz has said that the industry withdrawal from covering pandemic risk was “unavoidable” because this peril “once again reached the limits of insurability.” Writing as part of the reinsurer’s annual report for 2020, Kielholz noted that Swiss Re has been prepared for a severe pandemic scenario for ... Read the full article
2021 Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous cancelled
19th March 2021
The annual Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS) in Monte Carlo has been called off for the second year in a row, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. According to an official statement from the historic conference’s organisers, the next RVS is planned to take place in 2022. However, it’s worth noting that on ... Read the full article
Failings of public risk management “plain to see”: Denis Kessler
19th March 2021
SCOR's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Denis Kessler has said that the failings of public risk management are “plain to see” in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kessler addressed the “havoc” that the pandemic has wreaked on the global economy, in addition to the severe public health threat that it represents. But ... Read the full article
Swiss Re & Hannover Re warn of COVID-19’s claim tail & litigation risk
17th March 2021
Two of the world's largest reinsurance firms are warning that while the immediate losses caused by the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic may be largely reserved for, both expect a longer-tail of exposure to develop over time. There is great uncertainty over the potential for the COVID-19 pandemic to drive losses to ... Read the full article
Hannover Re’s income robust but large losses (COVID) dent underwriting result
11th March 2021
Global reinsurer Hannover Re has outperformed its Group profit guidance of more than €800 million for 2020 despite the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, alongside other large losses pushed the firm's property and casualty (P&C) combined ratio into unprofitable territory. Group net income declined from the €1.3 billion posted ... Read the full article
General insurance in Taiwan to hit $8.3bn by 2024: GlobalData
11th March 2021
Data and analytics firm GlobalData is expecting Taiwan’s general insurance industry to grow from $6.1 billion in 2019 to $8.3 billion in 2024, in terms of gross written premium. GlobalData has revised Taiwan’s general insurance forecast following the COVID-19 outbreak and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate ... Read the full article
U.S. P/C sector outlook improving but BI uncertainty remains: Fitch
10th March 2021
Despite the pandemic, U.S. property / casualty (P/C) insurers have broadly maintained capital strength, but although the performance of the sector in the year ahead is expected to improve, the business interruption (BI) issue lingers, says Fitch Ratings. On the back of substantial commercial lines premium rate increases and lower COVID-19-related ... Read the full article
COVID-19, sustainability key insurance themes for 2021: GlobalData
9th March 2021
Data and analytics firm GlobalData expects COVID-19 to be far and away the most important theme for the insurance industry in 2021, but that sustainability will continue to be an essential long-term issue. GlobalData insurance analyst Ben Carey-Evans states COVID-19 will change markets and transform consumer behavior as consumers and businesses ... Read the full article
Hiscox falls to 2020 loss on COVID-19 reserves
3rd March 2021
COVID-19 reserves of $475 million, net of reinsurance, has pushed insurer and reinsurer Hiscox to a loss of $268.5 million for full-year 2020, against income of more than $53 million in 2019. The majority of the company's pandemic claims relate to event cancellation business, with the second largest chunk concerning business ... Read the full article
COVID “occurrence” ruling could confuse reinsurance response: GC
3rd March 2021
Analysts at Guy Carpenter (GC) have argued that the definition of a COVID “occurrence” under the recent ruling by the UK Supreme Court could “confuse the conversation around reinsurance responses to COVID losses.” In January, the legal verdict on the FCA’s pandemic business interruption (BI) test case was that some forms ... Read the full article
Swiss Re’s Haegeli calls for more “long-term vision” in response to COVID
2nd March 2021
Jerome Jean Haegeli, Group Chief Economist at Swiss Re, has argued that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for “more long-term vision” from both governments and corporations around the world. Haegeli called the crisis a “wake-up call” that has brought to light fundamental deficits in sustainable and resilience-driven ways of ... Read the full article
Pressure grows for UK Gov to back event cancellation scheme
2nd March 2021
Performers, music industry bodies, and re/insurers are renewing their calls for the UK Government to underwrite cancellation costs of events such as music festivals and tours, to enable the restart of the live entertainment sector from this summer. Their calls come as a new YouGov survey shows that half of the ... Read the full article
Industry survey reveals divided census over 2021 P&C covid losses
1st March 2021
A comprehensive survey of Reinsurance News' industry contacts has revealed a clear divide in expectation for 2021's eventual COVID-19 impact on the Property & Casualty segment, with 27% of respondents feeling the figure will fall over $100 billion. A further 27% felt the eventual loss would land between $70 billion and ... Read the full article
Lloyd’s to reopen underwriting room on May 17
1st March 2021
Lloyd's of London has confirmed the reopening of its underwriting room and corporation offices on May 17. The specialist re/insurance marketplace plans to apply a class of business rota during the week and will confirm further details closer to the date. Looking further ahead, there will be additional action over further relaxing ... Read the full article
Growth of digital healthcare creating unforeseen risks: WTW
24th February 2021
Global re/insurance broker Willis Towers Watson has released a report which explores how COVID-19 and the trend towards the digitisation of medicine is resulting in a rapid technological change. In the report, the broker also noted that digitisation is creating emerging risk issues and may result in healthcare risk managers reassessing ... 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.
