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26th July 2015

Newslink Trends: Global Insurance Analysis
Trend

This week, mergers and acquisitions headlined, as second quarter results started to trickle. In the long running PartnerRe saga, EXOR reacted with a revised bid that the reinsurer had to take seriously, with its shareholders' voting date not far away, having already being put back once. The consolidation of the US health sector continued with Anthem in an agreed bid for Cigna, and Meiji Yasada is to build on its US presence by moving for The Standard. Hong Kong Peak Re is to take a 50% stake in leading Caribbean insurer NAGICO, whilst Charles Taylor is to take a controlling interest in Bulgarian-based insurance software specialist Fadata. AXA is in exclusive talks with Genworth Lifestyle Protection Insurance, and QBE is to sell its Mortgage and Lender Services business in North America to National General. Tokio Marine Kiln launched a 100% line corporate aircraft consortium at Lloyd's.
PCS reported on the drop in North American catastrophe losses in the first half, and the regular ISO/PCI survey indicated that US P & C insurers had a strong first quarter. Standard & Poor's reviewed insurance trends in the Gulf States, and Timetric commented on the buoyant Luxembourg non-life sector.
SSP is to collaborate with Capgemini to speed up the digitisation of UK personal lines insurers, and also announced that long-term client New India in the UK has upgraded to its Pure Insurance solution. Generali moved for telematics company MyDrive with a view to moving into a wider range of classes, and Guidewire was positioned as a leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Claims Management Systems.
A Lloyd's Market Association(LMA) event looked at the potential impact of driverless cars on insurance risk, and the International Underwriting Association(IUA) said that a coordinated approach to the insurance of aviation drones was needed for the technology to thrive. The Association of British Insurers(ABI) welcomed the Ministry of Justice move to tackle the growing number and cost of noise induced hearing loss claims.
EIOPA is to hold a public hearing of stakeholders on infrastructure investments before providing final Advice to the European Commission, and also published a User Manual for the exercise to challenge risk free interest rate coding. Foreign reinsurers will be able to take a larger proportion of the market in Brasil from 2017 on an increasing sliding scale to 2020, with retrocession proportions also increasing.
ACE, Beasley, and Travelers all produced strong second quarter results, but Allied World was hit by catastrophe losses.
The Chartered Insurance Institute(CII) elected Robert Fletcher as its 119th president at its AGM.
Articles on the above topics are included in those added to the Insurance Newslink and Financial Newslink global database service on Wednesday and today at www.onlystrategic.com