Tag: Financial news for insurance industry

Fitch Ratings on the state of Italian insurance industry

S.Vagus
Italian Insurance Industry

Italian insurance industry retains negative outlook Fitch Ratings, a global ratings agency and division of the Fitch Group, has released a statement concerning the state of the Italian insurance industry. Italy, like other countries in Europe, has been struggling to cope with the impact of financial crisis. The country was one of the hardest hit by the crisis, which took hold of the region in 2009. Years have passed since the development of the crisis and several countries are still working to mitigate its effects and recover. Industry pummeled by…

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American insurance industry feeling the pinch of weak investments and catastrophes

Julie Campbell

A new report released by A.M. Best Co. Inc., has stated that the unprecedented number of natural disasters, poor returns from investments, and an economy that continued to struggle in 2011, has made it exceptionally difficult for the American property and casualty insurance industry’s commercial insurance and reinsurance sectors to grow and has caused notable hurt to their operating performances. It’s estimated by the rating agency, based in Oldwick, New Jersey, that last year’s underwriting losses from underwriters in the commercial property and casualty sector were approximately $15.2 billion. This…

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Insurance companies in three states required to provide their response plans for climate change

The insurance commissioners for New York, California, and Washington state have announced that they will now be requiring insurers to disclose a climate change response plan that will outline the way in which they plan to respond to the changing risks that customers and businesses face as wildfires, severe storms, and rising sea levels become more common. Until now, those three states have asked only about a third of the larger insurance companies to provide information in the form of responses to a survey, but for all other insurers, it…

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Despite disasters, global insurance industry sees only modest rate hikes in 2011

Nordstrom

This year, the global insurance industry saw more than $100 billion in insured losses due to natural disasters. Normally, losses are accompanied by rate increases, but many insurers have not been raising premiums as much as analysts and consumers had expected. The fact that insurers have issued only modest rate hikes throughout the world has had a profound impact on the investment business. Investors are now having trouble figuring out which companies are good targets for the 2012 fiscal year, as many have emerged from 2011 catastrophes will healthy capital…

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Nationwide Insurance reports losses in the third quarter due to natural disasters and poor investment results

Nationwide Insurance has reported its third quarter financial results for this year. The report details a turbulent third quarter, which has been wracked by severe storms and other natural disasters along with costly investment mishaps. Overall, the report shows that the insurer has lost billions in investments and millions in claims relating to storm damage. While Nationwide has an optimistic outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, there can be no doubt that recent events will encourage changes to be made to the company’s policies. Nationwide reports that its…

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Allstate net income tumbles for third quarter after payouts for natural disasters

H. Cutner

Following the $1.08 billion payout by Allstate Corp. for natural disaster claims, the net income for the company’s third quarter fell by 55 percent. Equally, the insurer also said that its investment results were better, and that its auto insurance segment profits assisted in offsetting some of the losses resulting from this year’s storms. Overall, it saw a $165 million net income, which translates to 32 cents per share, when compared with the figures in 2010 which were 68 cents per share and a net income of $367 million. Allstate…

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Chubb Corp. reports losses verging on $500 million from natural disasters in the third quarter

The Chubb Corporation, a massive property insurance organization, has had a difficult time recovering from recent storms in the U.S. The occurrence of natural disasters in the U.S. has been unusually high this year, and the damage caused by these storms has been unprecedented. The storms have imposed gargantuan financial losses on the insurance industry and many companies are still sifting through claims from earlier in the year that are adding to total losses. Chubb officials have warned investors that the company’s third quarter losses may end up being higher…

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