Global insurance industry may be in for change as regulators come together to draft new rules

In the wake of major natural disasters and allegations of corruption, the world’s insurance industry is set for change. Insurance regulators from several nations have begun drafting new rules to present to political leaders in time for the 2012 G20 summit .These new rules are being tailored to ensure that the actions that spurred the 2008 economic recession cannot be repeated in the future. Both the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) are playing a major role in drafting the new rules. Overall, the…

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Insurance companies hit hard by recent storm losses

The recent outbreak of severe storms last month has added up to a massive bill for insurers. The severe storms and tornado’s in April has been called the second deadliest outbreak in U.S. history; falling barely short of the record Tri-State tornado outbreak in 1925. Insurance companies across the board are reporting high losses, such as Allstate, with a whopping 1.4 billion dollar loss; just for the month of April. Several insurance companies are reporting big losses for April, due to the historic weather events all through the southern states.…

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Allianz reports catastrophe losses on the rise but not the root of industry woes

Risk assessment experts at Allianz, one of the largest insurers in the world, have spoken out about the rising costs insurers are experiencing from natural catastrophe, outlining their findings in risk briefing – Allianz Risk Pulse: Focus Natural Catastrophes. With occurrences of severe weather, earthquakes and flooding, many insurance companies are seeing losses due to natural disasters and, according to Allianz, the number of companies experiencing these losses is on the rise. However, the increase may not be due to natural disasters at all. Allianz finds that the growing trend…

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So how did the insurance market do in 2010?

The property and casualty sector fared well for 2010; according to a report that was recently released. The financial report for the P/C industry gives the details for the sectors’ rate of return, underwriting, investment results, operating income, policyholder’ surplus and wrapping up with fourth quarter results. The policyholder’s surplus was up to 6.5 percent giving them a 0.6 percent increase from the previous year. This resulted from negative return rates for insurers in mortgage and financial securities, as well as low returns for other insurers. Although insurers net income…

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