Barclay’s Capital, a worldwide investment bank based in the UK, has launched a new initiative that is aimed at providing the insurance industry with added protections against natural disasters. The financial institution will begin supplying insurance-linked securities that will embolden the insurance industry against catastrophes. The new service will help placate the concerns of investors who are growing leery of the insurance industry’s constant struggle with disastrous storms and other events. Barclay’s believed that the insurance-linked security products will help the industry cope with any financial turbulence it may experience…
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Cinven buys U.K. Guardian life and pension from Aegeon
Cinven Ltd. has announced that it has purchased the life and pension unit of U.K. Guardian from the Dutch insurance company which owns Scottish Equitable, Aegon NV, for $449 million, in the effort to reduce its expenses within the United Kingdom. According to Aegon, which is based in the Hague, by the end of June 2011, the U.K. Guardian unit had recorded a value of approximately $445 million. Its unit for asset management will still be responsible for Guardian’s approximately $12 billion in assets on Cinven’s behalf. By 2015, Aegon’s…
Read MoreKemper will be the new name for Unitrin
The Unitrin Inc. insurance company made the announcement that it will be changing its name before the end of the month, at which time it will be known as Kemper Corp. Unitrin is based in Chicago, and in 2002 it had purchased the personal lines business from Kemper, another insurer that was still operational at the time. Today Unitrin has announced that its purchase has become the largest unit in the company, having brought in slightly under $1 billion in premiums in 2010. According to Don Southwell, Chairman and CEO…
Read MoreS&P’s downgrade could impact the nation’s insurance industry
Recently, Standard & Poor’s (S&P), a major financial research and analysis company based in the U.S., downgraded the U.S. government debt. The firm now classifies the nation’s finances as having a “negative” outlook. S&P’s actions have spurred the nation’s insurance and finance companies to take another look at their practices and portfolios, keen to spot any compliance violations spawned from the downgrade. The search for such violations has been slow going so far, as the U.S.’ long-term ratings have never before been downgraded. The downgrade has left many major insurance…
Read MoreThe IEEE begins drafting standardization policies for cloud computing
Cloud computing is becoming a popular phenomena in the tech world. A cloud-based system allows several people to use and access a multitude of server-based computational resources via a digital network. This sort of computing is appealing to businesses because it enables them to make use of vast amounts of computing resources that speed up their operations. However, many are not taking advantage of cloud computing for fear of security. While such fears are not to be taken lightly, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) says that many…
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