eu uses Solvency ii to shift insurers into infrastructure
Transcription
eu uses Solvency ii to shift insurers into infrastructure
every wednesday • Issue 17 • 15 october 2014 EU uses Solvency II to shift insurers into infrastructure Insurers are attracting policymakers’ attention in the EU as lawmakers try to drive investment in long-term infrastructure projects needed to underpin the region’s struggling economic recovery. The European Commission on Friday published Solvency II updates for insurers that include lower requirements for investments in cross-border funds focused on lengthy projects. Last year, EU financial services chief Michael Barnier proposed that funds meeting minimum EU criteria on governance and strategy should be designated ‘European long term investment funds’ and are designed to increase non-bank financing for companies. The European Commission said that the proposed rules would encourage insurers to shift a higher proportion of their investment funds into safe, simple and transparent securitisation markets in Europe, thus encouraging their development and increasing their liquidity. The new rules would permit a lighter capital treatment for top-rated asset-backed securities (ABS). Top quality securitisation includes only the most senior tranches of simple, top rated ABS. It excludes "sliced and diced" derivative securitisations, such as collateralised debt obligations, which were seen as major contributors to the financial crisis of late 2008 and early 2009. The funds would also be Continued on page 4 > Monsoon rains cause most economic loss in September Monsoon rains led to catastrophic flooding throughout parts of Pakistan and India in September, killing at least 648 people and damaging or destroying 375,000 homes. In India’s Jammu and Kashmir region, the local government tentatively estimated economic losses of INR1.0trn – $16bn. Insured losses were estimated at INR9.0bn or $150mn. In Paki- stan, economic losses in Punjab Province alone were put at PKR200bn – $2.0bn – representing the fifth consecutive year that Pakistan has endured a billiondollar flood event, according to the latest Global Catastrophe Recap report from Aon Benfield's Impact Forecasting Elsewhere in Asia the seasonal rains resulted in flooding across Continued on page 4 > ALSO in this issue: Starr v US govt court case page 8-10 2 EDITORIAL comment 4TOP STORIES 11TOP STORIES 13 FEATURE 15NEWS ROUND up 21people moves • First phase of Starr International case comes to an end •Capsicum Re signs deal with AJG • Lloyd’s FC beats Aon 3-2 to start season • M&A activity on the up, but is there more to come? • Liberty Mutual faces battle over Louisiana sinkhole • Lockton Asia appoints new Greater China head Corporate Trial Access Interested in a free companywide trial to Reactionsnet.com? Reactions specialises in delivering bespoke, multi-user corporate access. For a limited time we will provide you and your team or firm with full online access free of charge. There is no hitch; we just want to offer you the chance to get to know the site and find out if corporate access is right for your company. And we will set everything up on your behalf. How it works? We will create a branded corporate registration page that will allow all staff within the company to sign up and register for our service. It will give each user their own personalised account allowing staff full access to the website including our daily email alerts and the full online archive. They will also be able to select the frequency of email newsletters they wish to receive. • Breaking news • Daily news briefs • Weekly round up Add our content to your site: If you would rather integrate our news stories into your company intranet or internal newsletter this is also something we can offer for a limited time. Your company logo Start your companywide access today: To set up or discuss your corporate trial please contact Ben Bracken on +44 (0) 20 7779 8754 or email [email protected] Editorial comment The “first phase” of what is ostensibly the case of Starr International v The US, but which in reality is Maurice “Hank” Greenberg v the Washington and New York financial establishment, is now over. The “big three” – Tim Geithner, at the time head of the New York Federal Reserve and soon after the US Secretary to the Treasury during Barack Obama’s first administration; Henry “Hank” Paulson, Geithner’s predecessor as Secretary to the Treasury, serving under George W Bush; and Ben Bernanke, at the time the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors – all took the witness stand last week, facing questioning from celebrity lawyer David Boies. Boies had previously made his name in high-profile sports cases, forming his own firm in 1997 when Time Warner, a client of the firm where he was partner objected to Boies representing the New York Yankees. Time Warner owned the Atlanta Braves and the Yankees suit was against Major League Baseball en masse. Boies relationship with Greenberg goes back many years. In 2006 the partnership Boies, Schiller & Flexner negotiated a settlement with AIG on behalf of CV Starr. CV Starr (named after AIG’s founder Cornelius Vander Starr and, when Greenberg led AIG, his sole predecessor as leader of the company) was in those days an odd company. It traces its roots back to 1919 when Cornelius founded an insurer in Shanghai. Those links to China served the Starr companies, and AIG, well. In 1950 CV Starr was incorporated and became the parent company of the various Starr insurance businesses. But it was also an investment operation and a pension fund. Senior executives in AIG were linked to CV Starr through the way their pensions were structured. It was a system that worked well in encouraging loyalty and longevity of service. Greenberg was ousted as the leader of AIG in 2005, partly because of a financial reinsurance strategy that had helped AIG to smooth its earnings quarter by quarter. Eliot Spitzer, New York Attorney General from 1999 to 2006, was a key player in AIG’s decision to drop Greenberg, and statements made by Spitzer about Greenberg in 2012 have led to a legal action for defamation. This web of disagreements, most of which involve Greenberg, has led to some commentators asserting that Greenberg is seeing conspiracies round every corner. In 2012 US District Judge Paul Engelmayer said, of one of the many actions brought by Greenberg, that his complaint “paints a portrait of government treachery worthy of an Oliver Stone movie”. But, as the saying goes, just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. Boies’ arguments in court, that the rescue of AIG violated shareholders’ constitutional rights, and that it was only accepted by AIG board members at the time because the alternative was worse, have led to tough questioning of Geithner, Bernanke and Paulson that has often raised more questions than it has elicited answers. And the fundamental questions – why was AIG charged an interest rate more than three times as high as Citigroup, and was the government within its legal rights to take equity rather than debt – have not really been answered. The general defence used, and one which has gained some traction with commentators, is that AIG shareholders profited from the rescue, that they were better off than if the rescue had not taken place. However, none of the three star witnesses demonstrated causation; and it does not address the argument of Boies and Starr, who concede that a rescue was necessary. Bernanke and Paulson in the main put up a solid stonewall. While there were lots of “I don’t recalls”, Boies found it impossible to break them down. Paulson even had the generosity to say that he held Greenberg in high regard – a phrase that did not come to the more academic Geithner, who could only refer to Greenberg as a “unique” character. The kernel of Starr’s case does not seem to this writer to be unsound, but the defences throw up enough dust to make the fundamental case almost irrelevant. If it really is the establishment on trial, then more often than not the establishment wins. Strangely, as he was perhaps the least successful of the three witnesses for the defence, Geithner has put forward the most solid moral point – that the aims of the rescuers were noble and that the relative harshness of the terms was because (a) to impose the same on banks (which, implicitly, was what they deserved) would have been financial and economic suicide and (b) it was necessary to be punitive to discourage other institutions from taking the “government bailout” route. Geithner, therefore, is stating that AIG was treated harshly not so much because of what it did, as because it was possible to do so and because it would discourage others from doing the same. This might not appear fair, but late 2008 was not about fairness, it was about the possible. Looked at this way, even if Boies proved beyond all reasonable doubt that Starr International shareholders had their constitutional rights trampled upon, were hung out to dry while others got off lightly, tat the AIG Board had a gun held to its head when it “voluntarily” accepted the government rescue proposal; even if all that was shown to be undeniable indefatigable fact, a defence that the alternative would have been economic meltdown of the financial system and financial disaster for many millions more will probably work. “They did what they had to do” walks along the same path as the American dream, of the movies High Noon, Shane, Stagecoach, Three Violent People, and Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. “I know this man – a man got to do what he got to do.” Boies might have got the better of at least one of the big three, but he will find it hard when he has the spirits of Steinbeck, Heston and Wayne lined up against him n Peter Birks, Managing Editor, Reactions EDITORIAL Managing editor Peter Birks Tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8755 Email: [email protected] Deputy Editor Lauren Gow Tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8193 Email: [email protected] Americas editor Christopher Munro Tel: +1 212 224 3473 Email: [email protected] Senior reporter Victoria Beckett Tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8218 Email: [email protected] Reporter Samuel Kerr Tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8719 Email: [email protected] Contributing editor Garry Booth Email: [email protected] Design & production Antony Parselle Email: [email protected] ADVERTISING AND EVENTS SALES Commercial director and publisher Gary Parker Tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8171 Email: [email protected] Publisher (Americas) David Samuel, Tel: +1 212 224 3466 Email: [email protected] Deputy publisher Goran Pandzic Tel: +1 212 224 3711 Email: [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION SALES Account Manager Ben Bracken, Tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8754 Email: [email protected] Office manager/reprints Christine Jell, Tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8743 Email: [email protected] Managing director Stewart Brown, Tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8184 Email: [email protected] Divisional director Danny Williams Reactions, Nestor House, Playhouse Yard, London EC4V 5EX, UK Website: www.reactionsnet.com Reactions printed by: Wyndeham Grange, UK Annual subscription rates: Corporate multi-user rates are available, please contact [email protected] Single user: £920 / €1,150/ US$1,475 Subscription hotline: London: +44 (0)20 7779 8999 New York: +1 212 224 3570 Back issues: Tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8999 Subscribers: £27.50; Non-subscribers: £45.00 ISSN 0953-5640 Directors Richard Ensor (chairman), Sir Patrick Sergeant, The Viscount Rothermere, Christopher Fordham (managing director), Neil Osborn, Dan Cohen, John Botts, Colin Jones, Diane Alfano, Jane Wilkinson, Martin Morgan, David Pritchard, Bashar Al-Rehany, Andrew Ballingal, Tristan Hillgarth Customer services: Tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8610 Reactions is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Reactions (ISSN No. 002-263) is an online information service supported by a print magazine published by Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. ©Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC London 2014 Although Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this publication, neither it nor any contributor can accept any legal responsibility whatsoever for consequences that may arise from errors or omissions or any opinions or advice given. This publication is not a substitute for professional advice on a specific transaction. 15 october 2014 |3 top stories Capsicum Re signs deal with AJG Capsicum Re, the specialist reinsurance broker set up by ex Aon Benfield chief executive Grahame Chilton, has signed a deal with Arthur J Gallagher under which the reinsurance broking team of Arthur J Gallagher – AJG Re – will transfer to become a partnership within the Capsicum Re Group. Grahame Chilton All current and future treaty reinsurance business handled by Arthur J Gallagher will now be conducted by Capsicum Re. The AJG Re team, consisting of 14 people and led by Matt FitzGerald, has joined Capsicum Re and will continue under FitzGerald's leadership. The group moved to AJG in 2012 from Execution Re, then a part of Espirito Santo Investment Bank. Fitzgerald said: "This is an exciting development for our team and allows us to combine the influence and market presence of our US parent, Arthur J Gallagher, with the dynamic and entrepreneurial vision of Capsicum Re". Capsicum Re chief executive Grahame Chilton said: "This is a great move forward for Capsicum Re and consolidates our position as Gallagher's primary treaty reinsurance outlet". n EU uses SII to shift insurers into infrastructure < Continued from page 1 given a passport to market themselves throughout the 28-nation bloc. “Obviously we want to make sure that there are no obstacles for investing in those kinds of funds, where we hope then the money will be channelled into those projects that we want to promote,” said Barnier in an interview with Bloomberg in early October. Following the publication of the Solvency II Delegated Acts, Michaela Koller, director general of Insurance Europe said: “Insurance Europe welcomes the publication of the Delegated Acts, which are a vital part of the implementation of Solvency II." "We are now examining them, paying particular attention to their treatment of long-term investments which, as well as impacting policyholders, could impact insurers’ abilities as the leading institutional investor to help fund European growth and provide market stability.” The insurance rules, and bank rules that accompanied the announcement, take the form of "delegated acts" that add detail to broader EU laws. The proposals are sent to the European Parliament and national governments for review. Bot the parliament and local governments can object. In the case of insurance, Friday's measure adds requested detail to Solvency II, which will come into law in early 2016. n Monsoon rains cause most economic loss in September < Continued from page 1 parts of Thailand, China, and northeastern India, causing combined economic losses in excess of $2.1bn. Asia Pacific head of Impact Forecasting Adityam Krovvidi said that “floods causing significant economic losses are on the rise in Asia. Though the insured losses are very low for many events, the potential for a big surprise like the 2011 Thai floods is high. Pearl River Delta and Ho Chi Minh City among others are good examples in the region. Impact Forecasting has recognized the potential for major insured losses and has been developing several realistic disaster scenarios (RDS) for Asian floods in addition to fully probabilistic models. Work is complete or in progress in Thailand, China, Vietnam, Jakarta and Malaysia.” In developed markets, flooding hit the US, with one event seeing the aftermaths of Hurricane Norbert and Tropical Storm 4 | 15 october 2014 Dolly combining with monsoonal moisture to generate flash floods in Arizona, Nevada and California. Some locations recorded rainfall totals equal to a 1-in-1,000 year event, and the total economic loss approached $225m, with insurance losses approaching $100m. Hurricane Odile struck Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, killing five people and injuring 135 others. Total economic losses are expected to reach the low-digit billions of US dollars. Preliminary insured losses were put at a minimum of $522m. Elsewhere, typhoon Kalmaegi made separate landfalls in the Philippines, China, and Vietnam, killing 31 people and producing combined economic losses of almost $3.0bn. n TUNIS RE CAPITAL INCREASE RESERVED TO A STRATEGIC PARTNER CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST OBJECT OF THE TENDER As part of the final step of its development plan for the period 20102014, Société Tunisienne de Réassurance ("Tunis Re" or the "Company") plans to open its capital through a capital increase reserved to a strategic partner ("Strategic Partner"), to 25% of its share capital after increase (the "Transaction"). The extraordinary general meeting held September 19, 2014 decided a capital increase reserved to a Strategic Partner with the amount of 25 million dinars, divided into 5,000,000 shares with a nominal value 5 dinars, from 75 million to 100 million dinars. It’s expected that the Strategic Partner provide strong expertise in order to participate to the improvement of its technical and financial ratings including the strengthening of its financial and commercial capacity at the regional and international levels. KEY HIGHLIGHTS Tunis Re, a leading reinsurer in the Tunisian market, was established March 25, 1981 at the initiative of the authorities with the help of insurance and reinsurance companies as well as some local banks. At the end of June 2014, Tunis Re generates nearly 64% of its sales in the local market and 36% in the MENA region including 14% in Africa. To confirm its status as a regional reinsurer, Tunis Re initiated in 2012, its first representative office in Ivory Coast. Tunis Re has been assigned several national and international missions, including the reduction of remittance flows of reinsurance abroad and contributing to the establishment and development of national reinsurance pools. Tunis Re is in charge of their management on behalf of the Tunisian State. Tunis Re is the first African reinsurance company listed on the stock market. The IPO funds raising was achieved in May 2010. In 2012, a second public offering was performed to increase the capital of Tunis Re from 45 to 75 MTND. Tunis Re is certified to MSI 20000 standards by the Institute of the Paris Stock Exchange since October 2010. The international rating agency AM Best reaffirmed, in July 10, 2014, the technical and financial ratings of Tunis Re B + (Good) with a stable outlook, which confirm the strength of the Company and its ability to overcome difficulties. This confirmation reflects the good capitalization adjusted on the Company risk, better underwriting policy and a strong position in its market. In early 2011, Tunis Re has launched a specialized unit of islamic reinsurance "Retakaful" to target high added value crenel. This structure operates in accordance with the Islamic insurance rules and norms and is followed by a Chariaa supervisor. PRE-QUALIFICATION PROCESS Investors wishing to be pre-qualified to participate in the tender are invited to express their interest individually or by forming a consortium in accordance with the terms and calendar described in the pre-qualification document ("DPQ"). The strategic partner should be an internationally renowned financial institution: A direct insurer or reinsurer interested in a presence in the African and the MENA region markets And/or A bank, a specialized investment fund or an international renowned financial institution those are willing to expand or diversify its insurance and reinsurance activities. Expressions of interest must be submitted at Banque d'Affaires de Tunisie ("BAT") no later than November 14th, 2014 at 17:00 whose contact details are mentioned below. Tunis Re reserves the right, at any time during the process, to not retain one or several Investors to participate in the process of increasing the capital, in case of non-compliance by interested Investor(s) with the current rules of law and public order. REGISTRATION AND WITHDRAWAL OF DPQ Investors interested in participating in the Transaction must register first. To register, Investors should submit to the Advisor, whose details appear at the end of this notice, by fax or email, the Presentation Sheet ("Presentation Sheet") dully filled according to model available at the Advisor. Then, Investors will be invited to: (i) sign the non-disclosure agreement (the "NDA") available at the Advisor (Cf. contact details at the end of this notice. (ii) Pay the non-refundable registration fee, amounting to 3,000 dinars or 1,300 Euros or 1,700 USD. After steps (i) and (ii) Investors will be invited to withdraw DPQ, which presents the investment opportunity, the process and prequalification criteria. Registration fees are payable by certified check or by bank transfer to BAT in its account #10.010.124.1085140.788.94 (STB Bank). DUE DILIGENCE Pre-qualified investors will have access to the tender document ("DAO") and the Rules of data room, and have the opportunity to (i) conduct due diligence works as part of a virtual data room that will be open according to a timetable and specific rules (rules of the data room and list of available documents), (ii) to visit the Company buildings and (iii) meet with its management. The closing of the Transaction is planned for February 2015. Contacts and information: Banque d’Affaires de Tunisie ("BAT" or le "Advisor") was retained by Tunis Re as exclusive advisor to realize the Transaction. Any request for information, NDA, presentation Sheet or DPQ must be sent to: Mr Thameur CHAGOUR / Mr Tarek MANSOUR 10 bis, Rue Mahmoud El Materi, Mutuelleville, 1002 Tunis, Tunisie Tel.: +216 71 143 804 / +216 71 143 806 Fax: +216 71 891 678 Emails: [email protected] / [email protected] Web site: www.bat.com.tn top stories Hamilton buys US licences Nearly a year after a consortium of investors led by industry veteran Brian Duperreault bought SAC Re and transformed it into Hamilton Re under parent company Hamilton Insurance Group, New Jerseybased Hamilton USA’s parent Hamilton US Holdings has bought US-based admitted insurer Valiant Insurance and US-based surplus lines insurer Valiant Specialty from a subsidiary of TIG Insurance, itself a subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings. Brian Duperreault On completion Valiant Insurance Co will be renamed Hamilton Insurance Co and Valiant Specialty Insurance Co will become Hamilton Specialty Insurance Co. TIG Insurance Co will reinsure all insurance business written by the two companies prior to closing. It will also assume all other liabilities, giving the new Hamilton Insurance Co and Hamilton Specialty a "clean slate". Hamilton Insurance Co will be the admitted US carrier for Hamilton USA, while Hamilton Specialty will be the surplus lines US carrier for Hamilton USA. Hamilton Insurance Group chief executive Brian Duperreault said that, with the completion of these acquisitions, "we will begin to explore in earnest the potential that data analytics represents for the insurance industry. Under Conan Ward's leadership, we're entering an exciting chapter in the group's growth and development". Sac Re was only formed in 2012, with $500m in capital from Capital Z and Steven Cohen, founder of SAC Capital Advisors. But an insider trading scandal led to $1.8bn in civil and criminal penalties, with SAC stopping the management of external investors' funds. That effectively eliminated the raison d'etre SAC Re, hence the sale to the 6 | 15 october 2014 Duperreault consortium. Duperreault formed his new company, which has ex Citigroup boss Sanford "Sandy" Weill as non-executive chairman, in association with hedge fund Two Sigma Investments. Bob Deutsch was appointed chief strategy officer half way through this year. Deutsch has said that Hamilton plans to expand in the London market, another example of companies initially seen as reinsurers moving into the primary space. Fairfax bought Valiant in 2011 as part of its acquisition of First Mercury. AT the time Valiant was in run-off, and was subsequently transferred to TIG. Fairfax said that Valiant had effectively become a shell company, and it made sense to monetize the licences it held rather than dissolve the business. The sum paid by Hamilton was not disclosed. Nearly a year after a consortium of investors led by industry veteran Brian Duperreault bought SAC Re and transformed it into Hamilton Re under parent company Hamilton Insurance Group, New Jerseybased Hamilton USA's parent Hamilton US Holdings has bought US-based admitted insurer Valiant Insurance and US-based surplus lines insurer Valiant Specialty from a subsidiary of TIG Insurance, itself a subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings. On completion Valiant Insurance Co will be renamed Hamilton Insurance Co and Valiant Specialty Insurance Co will become Hamilton Specialty Insurance Co. TIG Insurance Co will reinsure all insurance business written by the two companies prior to closing. It will also assume all other liabilities, giving the new Hamilton Insurance Co and Hamilton Specialty a "clean slate". Hamilton Insurance Co will be the admitted US carrier for Hamilton USA, while Hamilton Specialty will be the surplus lines US carrier for Hamilton USA. Hamilton Insurance Group chief executive Brian Duperreault said that, with the completion of these acquisitions, "we will begin to explore in earnest the potential that data analytics represents for the insurance industry. Under Conan Ward's leadership, we're entering an exciting chapter in the group's growth and development". Sac Re was only formed in 2012, with $500m in capital from Capital Z and Steven Cohen, founder of SAC Capital Advisors. But an insider trading scandal led to $1.8bn in civil and criminal penalties, with SAC stopping the management of external investors' funds. That effectively eliminated the raison d'etre SAC Re, hence the sale to the Duperreault consortium. Duperreault formed his new company, which has ex Citigroup boss Sanford "Sandy" Weill as non-executive chairman, in association with hedge fund Two Sigma Investments. Bob Deutsch was appointed chief strategy officer half way through this year. Deutsch has said that Hamilton plans to expand in the London market, another example of companies initially seen as reinsurers moving into the primary space. Fairfax bought Valiant in 2011 as part of its acquisition of First Mercury. AT the time Valiant was in run-off, and was subsequently transferred to TIG. Fairfax said that Valiant had effectively become a shell company, and it made sense to monetize the licences it held rather than dissolve the business. The sum paid by Hamilton was not disclosed. n News in brief BoE brings in 100% insurance compensation The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has confirmed the fears of many in the financial services industry by imposing capital requirements and consumer protection that goes beyond new European rules. The added confusion about forthcoming obligations mainly concerns banks, which have estimated the ongoing costs of the new requirements at between £35m and £50m a year on an ongoing basis, plus a one-off cost of between £250m to £390m. The Bank of England also intends to raise to 100% from 90% compensation for holders of insurance policies for annuities, protection against accidental death or injury, and incapacity and professional indemnity, should an insurer collapse. top stories Flood Re seeks retro broker tenders Flood Re has published a tender for the services of a Retrocession Broker on the Crown Commercial Service’s website. The tender invites bidders to apply for an initial 4-year contract, extendable by Flood Re for further periods so that the term may be up to 7 years in total, with award scheduled for early December 2014. According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the broker will provide Flood Re’s advice on retrocession and/or other protection together with catastrophe modelling services. In addition the broker will procure and place outwards reinsurance and/or other protection on behalf of Flood Re. The closing date for completed tender responses is 18 November 2014. The ABI said Flood Re has also received a healthy response to the Managing Agent tender from a number of organisations. The evaluation of these submissions is currently being finalised, with an e-auction planned for later this week. Final selection of the Managing Agent will take place before the end of October. Tom Woolgrove, interim Flood Re CEO, said: "The Flood Re programme and ABI are delighted that tender documents for the appointment of the Broker have been published. Accessing global reinsurance, to transfer risk and manage volatility, is a key part of the Flood Re business model, and by using a broker's expertise, we hope to balance the cost effective placement of reinsurance with accessing innovative solutions." "Both tenders demonstrate our good progress, and are further major milestones in implementing Flood Re. n Fema to issue flood premium refunds One million US homeowners are to receive refunds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) after paying what have been deemed as excessively high flood premiums under the Biggert Waters Act. The refunds are part of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, which was passed on March 13 by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama on March 2. It was proposed by Republican representative Michael Grimm. The bill amends the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act, which included gradual elimination of subsidies aimed at putting the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) on sounder financial footing. The scrapping of the subsidies led to higher premiums for a number of homeowners. The new law limits yearly premium increases to an average of 15%, and caps any increase at 18%. The NFIP sent out revised guidelines in April advising its insurance partners on the new rates outlined in the flood legislation and their implementation. It also advised its partners on the best ways to provide relief to homeowners whose flood insurance premiums had risen prior to the passage of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act through Congress as part of the original Biggert-Waters legislation. “Starting today, millions of Americans, including thousands of homeowners in Staten Island and Brooklyn living in flood-prone areas will be able to remain in their homes and enjoy a breath of much-needed financial security,” said Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY). “Thanks to Congress rising above partisanship and passing my bill earlier this year, starting today my constituents will be able to afford their homes, buy and sell their homes, and avoid a crippling housing market crisis in our community.” n Berkshire launches fiduciary liability cover Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance has launched Executive First Fiduciary Liability Insurance, a policy providing up-to-date protection for fiduciary liability exposures related to an organization’s employee benefit plans oversights. “Our Executive First Fiduciary Liability policy addresses the most current regulatory, litigation, and pension and welfare issues facing large commercial and financial companies, their directors, officers and employees -- and gives companies the flexibility they want in defending claims," said Dan Fortin, senior vice president of executive and professional lines, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI). The policy has a flexible defence agreement, which gives policyholders the freedom to choose how and who they want to drive their defence. Insured's have the duty to defend all claims (with defence costs advanced), but can tender claims defence to BHSI if they prefer. A roster of highly sought ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) litigation defence attorneys will be available to insureds facing claims, but their use is not obligatory. The policy also provides full “settlor” coverage (with no sublimit) for litigation stemming from certain business decisions made about employee benefit plans, and extends Affordable Care Act "gap" coverage for no additional premium. Additional highlights include a broad definition of "plan," and expansive fines and penalties coverage. Up to $100m in capacity is available. n Warren Buffett 15 october 2014 |7 top stories Oct 7 STARR INTERNATIONAL TRIAL Paulson admits political factors in AIG bailout Henry “Hank” Paulson, former US Treasury Secretary, told a US Federal Claims Court yesterday that New York-based insurer AIG was subject to tougher rescue terms than other financial institutions because regulators wanted to send a message to the markets that any US government help that was offered would not come cheaply. Tim Geithner, head of the New York Fed in 2008, had told the court that Paulson was responsible for the 14% interest rate charged to AIG, termed extortionate by Starr International, a major shareholder in AIG at the time of the rescue. Starr, whose CEO is ex-AIG boss Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, is suing the US government for up to $25bn in damages for shareholders. Paulson said that when it came to regulating markets he valued stability above everything else, but then said that market participants needed to be responsible for the consequences of their actions. Starr asserts that the government exceeded its rights when it took an 80% stake in AIG in consideration for a loan of $85bn. Its lawyer David Boies has noted that the equity demand was not made of any other rescued financial institution. Paulson echoed previous testifiers, which Henry “Hank” Paulson have included two general counsels and one regulatory head, that if AIG was not kept alive, the country faced "a real disaster". Lehman Bros had been allowed to go bankrupt on September 15 2008 and the fallout was dramatic – with liquidity in the markets suffering drastically. Paulson said that Citigroup had escaped the severe terms imposed on AIG because the government feared that tough terms would encourage short-sellers to attack other banks. In the insurance sector there was no such threat of a "domino effect", Paulson said, implying that AIG was punished not so much because of what it did as because the impact of the punishment would not have wider economic implications. Boies put it to Paulson that the punishment of AIG was political, to which Paulson replied that he had indeed wanted to minimise the political opposition to what the government was doing. At the time the two major political candidates for the November 2008 election were Republican John McCain and Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama. The George W Bush administration was heading towards a painful close. Paulson accepted that the bailout of AIG might be linked in political and public eyes with the second half of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The concern, said Paulson, was that an injection of $40bn into AIG might stir up public and political opposition to the second half of the $700bn TARP program. Paulson repeatedly insisted that he did not recall the details of the rescue package, and was off the stand in under two hours. n www.reactionsnet.com 8 | 15 october 2014 STARR INTERNATIONAL TRIAL Oct 8 top stories Geithner testifies in AIG case Former US Treasury Secretary and head of the New York Federal Reserve Tim Geithner said in court on Tuesday that it was necessary for the US government to rescue New York-based insurer AIG in September 2008 because if AIG had gone under there could have been a second Great Depression. Starr International is suing the US government in the Federal Claims Court in New York, claiming that the bailout of AIG, though necessary, was on extortionate terms that infringed the rights of shareholders. Tuesday morning saw Starr's lawyer David Boies introduce as evidence several emails that Geithner wrote and received during the days either side of the initial bailout offer. Boies also read aloud several quotations from Geithner's book on the matter, stimulating the response from Geithner that he stood by what he wrote in his book. A Bloomberg TV commentator observed that clearly "it was not the place that he wanted to be at this particular time", and that his responses were "slow and deliberate". Geithner, as was the case with the other witnesses called so far by Boies, often stated that he could not recall certain details of the rescue. It was noted that events at the time were moving at a rapid pace, and that many of the emails sent and received by Geithner were timed later than midnight, indicating the round-theclock activity at the time as financial regulators worldwide attempted to stop the global economy collapsing. Days earlier Lehman Bros had been allowed to slide into bankruptcy and the consequent liquidity crunch had put a strain on several financial institutions. Many of those had AIG as a debtor because of AIG Financial Products' insurance of credit default swaps. AIG would eventually pay out to counterparties, which included some of the world's major banks, at 100 cents on the dollar, payments seen at the time as being helpful for the global economy, but not for AIG. A major plank of Starr's case is that the high interest rate set for AIG, and the taking over by the US government of 80% (eventually 92%) of AIG's equity in return for the bailout, was extortionate when compared with the rates charged to other financial institutions such as Citigroup. Geithner admitted that he was, ultimately, the person responsible for setting the interest rate charged – 14% – and claimed that the rate was modelled in part on a tentative private rescue plan that would have been led by JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. But he didn't think he had seen any written reasoning for the 14%, noting instead that "we were moving kind of quickly". He could not recall who drafted the proposed terms, or whether he had seen a term sheet from the private lenders. He then stated that his information about the proposed terms for the AIG rescue were conveyed to him by someone "authoritative" at the New York Fed, but he couldn't recall their name. He also pulled back from some of the statements he made at the peak of the crisis, when AIG's name was public mud. Some felt that at the time he had almost boasted that AIG's shareholders would be "effectively wiped out". He told Boies that the phrase was not accurate, because in fact the rescue benefited the shareholders rather than penalized them. Geithner had also said that the government takeover of a majority stake gave it the power to "carve up, dismember, sell or restructure" the insurer. That had appeared to be the fate of AIG until Bob Benmosche took over and rallied the troops, rebuilding the company. A point not raised in court was whether perhaps shareholders Oct 9 benefited more from Benmosche's defiance of original government plans, rather than because of the rescue. Geithner told the court that the government did not have a specific kind of equity in mind when the rescue was being planned. Part of Starr's case is that the government changed the type of equity it wanted from common stock to preferred shares because it realized that existing shareholders would not approve the deal. Geithner, who became Treasury Secretary under President Obama in January 2009 and served until January 2013, is scheduled to return to the stand today. He will be followed by the third pillar of the AIG rescue, Ben Bernanke. Judge Thomas Wheeler is presiding in the case, in the US Court of Federal Claims. n Geithner testifies, day 2 Discrepancies between the public pronouncements and the internal emails of ex New York Federal Reserve boss Tim Geithner at the height of the US financial crisis served to make it an uncomfortable morning in the witness box for the ex-Treasury Secretary. Starr International's legal representative in the court David Boies, questioning Geithner for a second day in the Starr International v US Govt case in the Federal Claims Court of New York, confronted Geithner with emails and other documents in which he appeared to say that the US Government was taking on significant risks with its loans to AIG in return for equity. Boies compared this with Geithner's public pronouncements that the loans were relatively low-risk. In exchanges that occasionally became heated, Boies also produced documents that indicated Geithner's opinion at the time to be that losses had been imposed upon shareholders in AIG proportionate to the mistakes made by the firm. Boies then noted that the US government hadn’t undertaken any analysis specifically to ascertain what those mistakes were, how big they were, and who was to blame. Geithner's response was that AIG was a unique case in the size of the problems it was facing (in Q4 2008 it booked a loss of $61.7bn, mainly because of continued severe credit market deterioration, and for 2008 as a whole it lost $99.3bn). Citing the benefits of hindsight, he added that it was not possible to assess the exact effect of each management decision at AIG. Geithner also observed that AIG was an insur- ance company – regulated by the states in the US – which meant that the Central Bank had little insight into the risks that AIG was taking. This was compounded by the fact that AIG Financial Products, the division that generated most of AIG's stratospheric losses, was headquartered in New York but was effectively based in London. Geithner said that the Fed had "no formal supervisory relationship with AIG" and that this had created "an exceptional set" of moral hazards. Defending the high rate of interest – a core part of Starr International's case that the rescue was unfair to AIG shareholders – Geithner said that the terms had to be tough enough not to create further moral hazard; if the loan rate was generous, the rescuers feared that other companies might deliberately travel the government bailout route. He also said that the government wanted some protection in the event that the collateral placed by the AIG parent company – mainly stock in its operating insurance company subsidiaries – declined in value. As it transpired, the US government ended up making a significant profit on the scheme, while AIG shareholders lost more than 90% of their interest in the recovery. Under friendly questioning from a lawyer from the US Department of Justice, Geithner said that the New York Fed did not decide until the last minute that it had the authority to provide AIG with a loan secured by equity as collateral. A key point put forward by Boies was that the US government acted in a way that it new was beyond its technical powers. n 15 october 2014 |9 top stories Oct 10 STARR INTERNATIONAL TRIAL Geithner wraps up lengthy time on stand Former US Treasury Secretary and head of the New York Fed at the time of the bailout of insurer AIG in late 2008, Tim Geithner, finished two and a half days on the witness stand Thursday morning. The main arguments between David Boies, legal representative for Starr International, and Geithner revolved around whether the loan from the US government to AIG posed substantial risks to the government. Boies asserted that it was a low-risk loan, on unjustly harsh terms. Starr International is suing the US government in the Federal Claims Court, asserting that shareholders in AIG were treated unfairly by the terms of the bailout. A defence of the government is that AIG shareholders eventually benefited from the deal, as did the US government, to the tune of more than $22bn. However, the US government also maintains that it was taking a big risk when it Oct 10 bailed out AIG and that this was one justification for the high interest rate charged. Justice Department lawyer Kenneth Dintzer introduced to the court previous Geithner The main arguments between David Boies, legal representative for Starr International, and Geithner revolved around whether the loan from the US government to AIG posed substantial risks to the government. statements that the US government faced a risk of substantial losses as a result of the bailout. Geithner also somewhat damned ex-AIG boss and current Starr boss "Hank" Greenberg as someone whose confidence and optimism were "unique". Geithner's ambiguity when he was asked by Boies what he thought of Greenberg had appeared earlier in his testimony and contrasted with the public opinion of Henry Paulson, Geithner's predecessor as Treasury Secretary, who said in the witness box that he held Greenberg in "high regard". Starr is suing the US government for up to $40bn in the Federal Claims Court. n Bernanke defends terms of AIG bailout On Thursday former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke became the fifth witness to take the stand in Starr International vs US in the US Federal Claims Court, and the third of the three most significant – Henry Paulson, Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke. Bernanke has had the advantage of seeing the thrust of Starr's lawyer David Boies case against the US via the questioning of Paulson and Geithner. Bernanke, who will be testifying again today, Friday, said that the 14% interest rate charged to AIG, more than three times higher than was charged to comparable banking institutions that needed bailing out, was justified in that it prevented AIG shareholders from benefiting from the $85bn bailout. Bernanke, like Paulson, has used terse, non-conversational responses to Boies questioning. He said that the lower rates charged to banks was intended to get funds into the system, improving liquidity. Bernanke accepted that this might lead to shareholders in the banks benefiting, but claimed that there were offsetting considerations that did not exist in the case of AIG. News in brief China quake destroys 7,000 homes An earthquake destroyed almost 7,000 homes and injured 324 in southern China last night, the official Xinhua News Agency has reported. One person was killed in the 6.6-magnitude quake in Yunnan province but major casualties are expected to be low, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a statement. The Ministry said water, electricity, communication is normal on their website. However, the Earthquake Administration had previously said the earthquake had caused “great casualties and heavy losses” and it carried out an emergency plan for earthquakes that cause 50 to 300 deaths or heavy economic losses. Xinhua said there were 6,988 homes collapsed and 13,017 damaged today. As part of the rescue effort 10,000 tents, 10,000 quilts and 10,000 winter coats will be sent to the area to the area, the provincial government said. 10 | 15 october 2014 IAG announces major brand repositioning Australian insurer IAG has announced a major repositioning of its brands, with its intermediated business to fall under the CGU banner, Lumley to be established as an underwriting agency and Wesfarmers Insurance to remain a small, rural brand. A new set of CGU products will be released from next April and will combine the best of CGU and Lumley policies, IAG Commercial Insurance CEO Peter Harmer told insuranceNEWS.com.au. IAG Commercial will have a broader and increased appetite as a result of larger scale achieved following IAG’s takeover of the Wesfarmers underwriting business on 1 July. The new Lumley Agencies business will use this scale to “aggressively grow”, said Harmer. He also said that the insurer is looking for partners to create new agencies with. He told Boies that at the time of the bailout he did not know the basis for the interest rate charged, but that he had learned something about the matter since. "I understand the overall goal was to minimise the windfall to the stockholders from AIG being bailed out, but I couldn't go term by term". When Boies pushed for specifics about prevailing rates at the time of the crisis, Bernanke effectively dismissed the question with the statement that he did not think that it was worth "splitting hairs" on this one. On being asked if the Federal Reserve's power to set interest rates for loans to financial institutions in trouble included the right to demand equity in return, Bernanke said that he did not recall even thinking about it. Thomas Baxter, general counsel for the New York Fed and the first witness to take the stand, had asserted that the central bank did have the power to demand equity under the "incidental powers" but also said that the Central Federal Reserve, i.e, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, had seen this as "loophole lawyering". Bernanke told Boies that AIG had performed worse than he had anticipated, eventually requiring $182bn in loans and ceding a 92% stake. This possibly contrasted with Geithner's testimony. He had said that he was pleasantly surprised with how well AIG eventually performed. Under Bob Benmosche AIG stopped its break-up strategy and end of the AIG name, reasserted itself as a brand and paid off the loan. n top stories Lloyd’s FC beats Aon 3-2 to start season In a basement near Lloyd’s, international DJs played whilst a magician worked the crowd, as sax and drum players weaved in an out of champagne fuelled revellers last week. It wasn't the scene you'd usually associate the with the London Market, but is something we can expect more of as the Lloyd's Football Club has decided to up its game. Despite having a huge membership, the club has admitted it has not done much in recently years to raise its profile. But now they have decided to turn things around to attract some interest from outside the club. After a slow start, the night suddenly accelerated when an influx of strapping young men flooded the basement (much to the delight of some of the gorgeous girls crowding round the bar). A coachload of Lloyd's FC players had just arrived, triumphant from their opening match of the season against Aon, having beaten them 3-2. James Lakey, a claims broker who joined Howden Insurance in 2008, was named man of the match. Lloyd's FC is set to play Oxford University today. Other fixtures for the season also include the Royal Air Force and London Legal League. David Flint, who has been the team's manager for the last ten years, and is currently a partner at insurance recruitment agency TPD Associates having previously worked as an insurance broker spoke to Reactions about the best and worst parts of his extracurricular activities. "It's an extremely fun job but it can seem like a thankless task on a rainy Wednesday in March and you have only nine players because no one can get out of work," laughs Flint. Players are usually recommended to Flint via word of mouth. "Most of the players we have are playing at a semi-professional level," he says. There are about 115 players on the list, which come from all walks of life across all companies associated with the London Market. However, the club is not exclusively for the industry's elite, young men. There is a "vets" team for over 35s (all over 35 readers - you're now officially past it), and Flint plans on having a women's team playing a match before the year is out. The club has become somewhat of an institution having run for 62 years, but Flint admits things needed a shake up. By holding more events and raising the club's profile, Flint hopes to raise funds which will go towards the club's expenses which include their international tours. These have previously included destinations such as Singapore and Houston, with Bermuda and New York planned for 2015. Last year about £12,000 was also given to charity. Previously the club have grown good relationships with the Prince's Trust and Spark, but this year the guests at the club's annual dinner will be able to choose a charity per table to allocate donations too. "The dinner is our major event, sponsored by Aon. We have about 600 of the great and the good attending," explains Flint. This year the event will be on November 13 and celebrity guests will include football players Dennis Law and Billy Bonds. Ex-referee Howard Webb will be the guest speaker and Brian Conley will be the comedian. n News in brief Swiss Re unit offers food & drink product Swiss Re Corporate Solutions has launched Contaminated Products Insurance for the food and drink industries in the UK, Ireland and Italy. Swiss Re said that the cover would offer protection in both the primary and excess layers for manufacturers, retailers and distributors. The move into an area separate from the concept of traditional reinsurance is helped by an agreement with food and drink consultancy RQA Group. RQA will provide policyholders with crisis management support in the event of product contamination or failure. Swiss Re Corporate Solutions head of Europe, Middle East and Africa Tony Buckle said that the food and drink sector was one of the largest manufacturing segments in the UK, Ireland and Italy, and that “the consequences of contaminated or defective products pose serious challenges to companies operating in the sector”. Buckle felt that the extent of the Swiss Re cover, added to in-house risk engineering and local claims expertise, plus the consultancy support from RQA, represented “a compelling value proposition to clients”. RQA managing director Vince Shiers said that the food and drinks sector was one of the sectors most exposed to crisis conditions. He said that RQA’s main focus was “on lowering the occurrence of such incidents”. 15 october 2014 | 11 feature top stories Swiss Re buys stake in East African insurer Swiss Re has bought a minority stake in Kenya-based insurance group Apollo Investments Limited in a bid to increase its stake in the African market. "This is a financial investment into an area, sub Saharan Africa, which is a focus area for us in our high growth markets strategy and where we expect to generate attractive and financial risk adjusted returns," a spokeswoman for Swiss Re said. Swiss Re has not disclosed the price of the deal, but said it would take a 26.9% minority stake in Apollo, which also has operations in Uganda and Tanzania. The reinsurer will have the right to a seat on the company's board but it will not be involved in daily management or operations. Michel Liès Private equity firm LeapFrog Investments sold its stake to Swiss Re disclosed the deal on Wednesday. n Florida property insurance debate in election battle Florida’s property rates are spiralling upwards for homeowners, despite not seeing a hurricane for almost nine years Republican Governor Rick Scott, currently going re-election, has kept a free market approach to the industry as he tries to grow the private insurance industry. He has tried to transfer thousands of policyholders out of state-owned Citizens Property Insurance to cut back state exposures. The average annual premium for homeowners' policies has grown from $1,544 to $1,933 under Scott, according to The Business Journals. In the run up to elections, Democratic former governor Charlie Crist said he will act to reverse rate increases that have occurred under Scott's free-market. Most of Florida’s insurance industry back Scott, The Business Journals reported. Citizens coverage has been reduced for many customers to just main buildings, leaving unprotected awnings, gazebos, tiki 12 | 15 october 2014 huts, and most carports and screened-in pool enclosures, which are more vulnerable to hurricane damage. Lynne McChristian, the Florida representative for the Insurance Information Institute said Scott’s model was "pay now" while Crist's is offering "pay later". Shealso said Crist's rate-reduction proposal appears "arbitrary," rather than based on actual claims costs, which include historical losses from natural disasters. MacManus said the survey found that concerns about property insurance have risen since a prior survey in 2012. Jay Neal, president and chief executive officer of the Florida Association for Insurance Reform, said a non-political middle ground is needed between Crist simply rolling back rates and Scott wanting to further deregulate the industry. He argues that rates could be lowered about 7% by reforming the reinsurance industry, which is heavily based offshore. During Scott’s 2010 campaign he promised to ensure that Citizens has consistently on actuarially sound rates, but premiums have increased while more than a halfmillion policies were moved into the private market. n And now the space weather forecast from the Met Office A new forecast centre dedicated to space weather was opened by the UK’s Met Office today. The Space Weather Operations Centre is intended to protect the UK's economy and infrastructure from severe events caused by space weather, the disruptive influence created by explosive eruptions on the Sun. The worst storms can disturb satellites, cause fires in power grids and disrupt radio communications. As with terrestrial weather, the Met Office will co-ordinate operational forecasting with other centres such as in the US, which has had a prediction service for several years. Solar storms are listed on the UK’s National Risk Register as one of most serious threats, along with ‘flu and volcanic eruptions in Iceland. These phenomena have the potential to cause major economic upheaval, and the Government has ordered contingencies be put in place to help protect the UK. Dependence on technology has heightened the risk of damage from space weather. In 2004 the US National Academy of Sciences estimated that the economic cost of a repeat of a solar storm that happened in 1921 would be USD2 trillion for the first four years - but with recovery taking up to ten years for the US alone. A report from Aon Benfield last year pointed out that global manufacturing capacity for high voltage transformers is estimated to be only about 70 units per year. A repeat of the 1921 space weather event might damage at least several hundred such units worldwide, with replacement of so many transformers taking a year or more. An earlier report from Lloyd’s emerging risks team stated that satellites are vulnerable to disruption by space weather, as are aircraft. Another problem for airlines is that space weather can also increase radiation levels on board planes. The report said that all GPS systems are vulnerable to space weather which means that the road and maritime transport industries could also be adversely affected. Even railways could be disrupted, as space weather can also cause incorrect signal settings on lines. Mobile phone links are vulnerable to interference from solar radio bursts, and there is also a threat to wireless communication, including wireless internet. Go to http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/publicsector/emergencies/space-weather feature M&A activity on the up, but is there more to come? After a three-year slide mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the insurance sector appears to be recovering but the jury is out on whether this uptick marks a turning point in the market or an anomaly, writes Andrew Holderness, Global Head of the Corporate Insurance Group at Clyde & Co. Despite the persistent presence of a number of factors that can be detrimental to M&A activity – such as considerable excess capital in the market, soft pricing and economic fragility in the Eurozone – there is a sense of renewed energy around transactions across the re/insurance market which has spurred an increase in the number of deals. The volume of M&A worldwide increased in the first six months of 2014 to 192, compared to 157 in the second half of 2013 and 162 in the same period a year ago. This increase has been driven by activity in Europe – which has overtaken the Americas in the number of completed transactions in the last 12 months. As Solvency II now has more granularity around its implementation and some key economies are showing signs of sustained recovery, many re/insurance businesses are looking carefully at their structure to ensure that they can take advantage of any upturn. Meanwhile, M&A in North America over the last five years shows activity peaking in 2011, and then trending steadily downward. Contributing factors include differing buyer/ seller perceptions of company value, ongoing regulatory uncertainty, the uncertain economic outlook, and some companies’ preference to reinvest excess capital into the business or to satisfy shareholders with stock buybacks and dividends. However, it seems the bottom of the market was reached in the second half of 2013, and activity picked up slightly in the first half of 2014. In the last few years, in contrast to other regions around the world, the volume of M&A activity in Asia Pacific has remained comparatively steady. The region remains an attractive proposition for insurers looking for growth opportunities. Increasing levels of GDP and improving insurance penetration rates are delivering premium growth, benefiting both domestic and international insurers, and spurring those hungry for opportunities both from within Asia Pacific and beyond - either to build or strengthen their presence. However, despite some geographic differences, there are a number of common drivers of transaction activity around the world. The desire for growth remains a priority for many re/insurers. With opportunities increasingly hard to find, foreign investors continue to look further afield outside their own, often stagnant, domestic markets. Others are disposing of assets and books of business due either to the on-going fallout from the global financial crisis or from problems that have occurred during normal operations. Meanwhile, regulators across the world, eyeing developments in Europe and the US, continue to introduce legislative changes of their own as they seek to strengthen the market through the desire for fewer, stronger insurers; measures that area actively driving consolidation often as smaller players struggle to comply with more demanding capital requirements. While it remains to be seen whether the recent uptick in M&A is sustainable, the most powerful trigger for deal activity in the coming year will be the excess capital overhanging the sector. Shareholders are looking for decent returns on their investments and, if management cannot deliver this operationally, then there will be pressure either to return it or deploy it elsewhere. The key challenge is for those companies that cannot demonstrate underwriting excellence or are unable to scale up and move into different markets to acquire new business. In the absence of a catastrophic event causing significant balance sheet damage, and with rates having trended downwards steadily over the last several years, re/insurers have become even more active in their search for alternative strategies. In addition, size appears to be becoming increasingly important – and balance sheet strength seen as being critical to clients. If this is the case, then strategic mergers and acquisitions will be driven by the desire to reach optimal scale and relevance. n 15 october 2014 | 13 Lose the rolodex Join our linkedin network Joi nt oda y! Over 2,500 (re)insurance professionals on Linkedin at: Reactions - Global Insurance and Reinsurance ance and r u s in l a b lo G – R e a ct io n s rm to: fo t la p e h t is e c ( re ) in su ra n ’ c o nte nt s n o ti c a e R e iv s Re a d e xc lu s tr y info rm ati o n u d in t n a v le re t Po s in dis c u s s io n s e g a g n e d n a te C re a s s io n als fe ro p y tr s u d in r e Ne tw o rk w ith o th p d ate s and u t n ta r o p im e iv Re c e n e v e nt info rm ati o cial! o s s t e g s n o i React actionsnet. com www. re news round-up Liberty Mutual faces battle over Louisiana sinkhole The collapse of a salt dome that resulted in a 37-acre sinkhole in a Baton Rouge swamp has resulted in a $50m insurance dispute between the mine’s operator, Texas Brine, and its insurer, Liberty Mutual. Salt domes are natural underground formations that are common throughout south Louisiana and can be found in association with natural gas deposits. Texas Brine wants Louisiana’s state insurance commissioner James Donelon to order New York based Liberty mutual to pay out on the $50m claim which was designed to kick in after the company's other insurers paid more than $75m in claims. The mining company claims the limit has been reached. Liberty Mutual however, claims that it is under no obligation to pay and has asked a federal court in Houston to rule that it owes nothing to Texas Brine because the company knew it was mining close to the edge of the dome. The insurer alleges that in 1998 a Texas Brine internal memo warned against a number of measures that would potentially result in the collapse of the dome if the mining company got too greedy in its mining efforts. In its plea to Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, Texas Brine claims Liberty breached confidentiality by basing its allegations on privileged material provided by Texas Brine to all of its insurers, and making that material public. According to Texas Brine, Liberty continues to claim that it is inexplicable that other insurers have paid $76m in claims to Texas Brine under five separate policies because the mining company was not owed it. Liberty continues to base this claim on the internal memo sent in 1998, and it states that because Texas Brine is not owed any insurance payout the $75m limit hasn't been reached. 3Q15, and it will provide the insurers the chance to re-price the policies to reflect unfavourable trends in catastrophes. The current practice is the charge a flat price throughout the protection period for this product. In addition, Japanese non-life insurers plan to increase premium rates for insurance products that cover fire, wind and flood risks from the financial year ending 31 March 2016. Super Typhoon Vongfong threatens US base Japan non-life insurers tighten risk controls Japanese non-life insurers are expected to retain less risk on their balance sheets going forward as they seek out alternative risk transfer solutions such as cat bonds and reinsurance. Ratings agency Fitch said in a market announcement that despite recent catastrophes in Japan being classed as financially manageable, there is a perception among non-life insurers that the frequency and magnitude of catastrophes is on the rise, therefore pushing insurers to limit their exposure. The ratings agency said that tighter risk controls will be targeted at typhoon primarily, as well as earthquake and other natural risks. Japanese non-life insurers will soon start to cap the maximum protection period for residential property fire insurance (covering damage from fire, wind and flood) to 10 years, instead of the previous practice of insuring these risks as long as the mortgage repayment lasts. This change is likely to take place in Super Typhoon Vongfong, the strongest tropical cyclone of the year, is continuing its destructive path towards Japan with the potential of hitting one of the US’s largest military bases, according to experts. With the equivalent power of a Category 5 hurricane, the typhoon is on track to strike one of the US military's largest concentrations of manpower and firepower on the islands of Kadena and Okinawa, forecasters said Thursday morning. The cyclone has "intensified explosively," with maximum winds of 165 mph, and is set to turn northward toward Japan itself, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. "It's safe to say Vongfong is the strongest storm on earth since Haiyan last year," said The Weather Channel's Michael Lowry. Kadena Air Base — home to 24,000 U.S. and Japanese military personnel and contractors — and the cluster of U.S. bases on Okinawa have begun stocking up on food, water supplies and fuel. The Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center has reported that ocean waves were already as high as 50 feet. Pro Global reports strong order pipeline UK-based specialist provider of operational outsourcing and consulting services Pro Global Insurance Solutions plc has reported its results for the first six months of 2014, stating that it was "a year of transition" with the Pro team "laying solid foundations for 2015 and beyond". Its key strategic goals are to become the leading specialist service provider addressing the complex operational needs of global insurers and reinsurers, and also "to achieve 15 october 2014 | 15 news round-up annual revenue of £60m at a sustainable net margin of 15% in the medium term". The demerger of Tawa plc was announced in December 2013, with the risk carrying business distributed to its then existing shareholders. That demerger was completed on April 3, leaving the remaining subsidiaries. Pro was formed the following day, enabling it to focus on its services business without the accompanying volatility of the risk-carrying business. The loss from continuing operations, being the demerged business without the volatile risk-carrier businesses, was £1.2m, compared with a loss of £1.5m in 2013. Pro said that revenue for the first half was impacted by the demerger activities. Pro said that it was "seeing a significant upturn in its consulting revenues towards the end of the second quarter and continuing into the third quarter". The company said that its order pipeline remained strong. The 2014 results to date include reorganisation and restructuring costs of £1.6m, with an expected reduction in operating costs of £1.0m a year going forward. Pro retains a 33% stake in turnkey managing agency services company Asta, which Pro said continued to perform strongly. Pro's share of Asta profits in H1 were £0.7m. Pro close the sale of Hamburger Internationale Rückversicherung AG to Compre Holdings in August this year. Pakistan and EFU Group are both adopting takaful products, with EFU looking at life and general products, Reuters reported. As Takaful products have greater consumer appeal in the Islamic world regulators are keen to encourage them, however currently traditional insurers are bigger and have more longevity. Pakistan's insurance regulator expects at least half the 50 conventional insurers to eventually offer takaful, with 25 insurers set to enter the takaful industry in 2015. Five of Pakistan's takaful insurers initially fought new regulations allowing traditional insurers to offer takaful products as well as conventional insurance, as it may put pure takaful insurers at a competitive disadvantage. The dispute was cleared in May after an agreement that requires insurers to allocate 50 million rupees to their window operations, compared to no such requirement in the original rules, Reuters reported. Pakistan's Jubilee Insurance to offer Takaful China's Anbang acquires NY's Waldorf Astoria Pakistan's Jubilee General Insurance Company wants shareholder approval to offer Takaful insurance after the regulator allowed traditional insurers to offer Shariacompliant products earlier in 2014. Jubilee, a private insurer, will consult shareholders at its extraordinary general meeting on November 7 to gain permission to offer takaful insurance and reinsurance locally and internationally the insurer said in a stock exchange filing. The United Insurance Company of 16 | 15 october 2014 China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co has agreed to acquire the world famous Hilton Worldwide Holdings-owned Waldorf Astoria New York in a deal valued at $1.95bn. While Anbang has bought the hotel, Hilton will continue to manage the property for the next century. The hotel will now undergo a major restoration and renovation project while its former owner intends to use the monies gained from the sale to fund further hotel acquisitions in the US. “We are very excited to be entering into this long-term relationship with Anbang, which will ensure that the Waldorf Astoria New York represents the brand's world-class standards for generations to come,” said Christopher Nassetta, president and chief executive officer of Hilton Worldwide. “This relationship represents a unique opportunity for our organizations to work together to finally maximize the full value of this iconic asset.” Widely recognised as an Art Deco masterpiece, the hotel occupies an entire block in mid-town Manhattan. Anbang is a Beijing-based company that operates in the property, life and health insurance sectors within China. It also has an asset management arm in addition to businesses acting as both insurance sales agents and insurance brokers. It has assets valued in excess of Yuan700bn ($114bn) and operates out of 3,000 outlets across 31 of China’s provinces and autonomous regions. Pembroke broadens space coverage Ironshore’s Pembroke Managing Agency has broadened the range of products it offers the space sector launching a new coverage aimed at protecting manufacturers and operators of satellites. The insurance coverage is designed to protect satellite operators, manufacturers and launch service providers from losses associated with launch delays. Pembroke, which operates as Ironshore’s managing general agent in Lloyd’s, will offer a suite of new contingent products to cover contractual liabilities and financial exposures, which the parties incur through launch delays. The insurance coverage is linked to contractual exposure rather than being based on a physical loss or damage trigger. Satellite operators may enhance their coverage to protect against the consequences of political risk, contract frustration, loss of export license or delay caused by a copassenger’s payload. news round-up Pembroke says that its new products will address operator exposure surrounding financial repercussions resulting from lost lease payments due to contract termination and liquidated damages payable to the operator’s customer for launch delay. Insured parties may, in certain instances, be required to retain part of the risk as coinsurance. Capacity limits, available up to $15m, vary for each of the six new products. “Pembroke’s new financial products for the space sector are more comprehensive than those currently available in this specialty lines market,” said Neil Stevens, director of Pembroke’s space unit. “Increasing participation by international operators engaged in the satellite industry demands that sophisticated coverage solutions are made available for optimal commercial benefit.” Pembroke has developed something of a reputation for pushing the boundaries of the space insurance market ever since Neil Stevens joined the company as director for this niche market from the Atrium Space Insurance Consortium. Indeed, the company started this year by launching a product designed to protect lenders and export credit agencies involved in satellite procurement financing against breach of warranty. Pembroke’s syndicate 4000 leads the innovative consortium and secured $120m of capacity from various Lloyd’s syndicates in support of the new product. Willis makes Swedish acquisition Wllis has taken a controlling stake in Sweden's Max Matthiessen in a move which makes it the largest broker and risk advisor in the Nordic region. Willis, which has received approval from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority to conduct the deal, has acquired a 75% controlling stake in Max Matthiessen he company. The transaction means Willis, across its combined Nordic operations, is now the largest broker and risk advisor in the region which encompasses the countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. “Willis is now the international frontrunner in the Nordic region and in Sweden. The strong Willis footprint in the region illustrates the Group’s commitment to establishing its global strategy in the human capital and benefits sector,” said Johan Forsgård, chief executive (CEO) of Willis Sweden. “We will now look forward to bringing the best of both organisations here in Sweden to all of our clients.” The Nordics represent a substantial insurance market with Scandinavia alone - Sweden, Norway and Denmark - generating $90bn of premium in 2013 according to Swiss Re's Sigma; Finland generated $25.5bn of premium in the same year. As well as a means to significantly grow its presence in the Nordic region, Willis said the move to acquire a controlling stake in Max Matthiessen reflects its strategic focus on growing its global human capital and benefits practice. “Max Matthiessen is a well-established and widely-respected business serving markets where we see strong growth potential, especially in conjunction with our existing P&C businesses within Sweden,” said Tim Wright, chief executive of Willis International and leader of the global human capital and benefits practice. “Max Matthiessen will bring a powerful set of capabilities to the Willis Group globally, as well as benefiting from Willis’s global footprint. This is an important acquisition for us and it reflects our commitment to both this exciting sector and to the Nordic region.” Max Matthiessen is one of Sweden’s largest independent advisers in retirement savings, health plans and personal insurance, with around 420 employees in 23 locations across Sweden. Willis Sweden and Max Matthiessen have held a strategic partnership since 2009, and the acquisition means the two will work even more closely together. The Max Matthiessen brand will be retained and will run alongside Willis Sweden. “We are very happy to now be part of the Willis Group. The combined business will benefit both sides as we can offer our clients a broader product portfolio,” said Christoffer Folkebo, CEO of Max Matthiessen. “Max Matthiessen will operate under the same brand as before but with Willis’s international knowledge and experience enabling us to expand even further.” Technology investment top priority for Bermudians Bermudian reinsurers are making investment in technology one of their top business priorities says a survey undertaken by technology services company Xuber, a division of Xchanging. The survey results revealed that that having first-class technology was seen as critical to reinsurers' businesses and essential to remaining competitive in the years to come. Almost a fifth (19%) of the executives surveyed identified technology as their top business priority in 2015, followed by searching for attractive yields and results (12%) and talent (11.5%), according to the survey. The survey revealed that almost half (46%) of the respondents felt analytics enabled them to provide underwriting assistance to insurers, and over a third (38%) said they are executing a big data programme – highlighting the central role of technology within the market. Executives also agreed that both analytics and big data were likely to be issues of growing importance for their future success. “Our research has uncovered some fascinating insights. Despite the many challenges faced by the reinsurance industry, including an ongoing soft market, the pressure of alternative capital, mergers and acquisitions, and impending regulatory reform in the form of equivalency with the EU’s Solvency II regime, the survey results show Bermuda is as adaptive and forwardthinking as it has ever been,” said Chris Baker, managing director of Xuber. “This market has always been renowned for its innovation, particularly the development of new and smarter risk management products. As such, the dynamics of the Bermudian reinsurance market are changing and reshaping the way reinsurers do business, as well as influencing future business priorities.” The survey also revealed that 73% of executives identified the regulatory and political framework of Bermuda as attractive reasons for doing businesses there, as well as the domicile’s prominence in the field of insurance-linked securities. 15 october 2014 | 17 news round-up P&C insurers' net income rises in H1 The average net income of the property/ casualty insurers in the US rose in the first half of the year as realised capital gains made up for shortcomings in operating income. According to ISO, a Verisk Analytics business, and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), property/ casualty insurers' net income after taxes rose by $1.6bn to $26bn in H1 2014 from $24.4bn in first-half of 2013. However, insurers' pre-tax operating income fell by $1.9bn to $23.9bn in the first six months of the year from $25.8bn in H1 2013.This was offset by improved investment performance as realised capital gains on investments rose by $3.3bn to $7.2bn in the first half of the year compared with $3.9bn in the same period of 2013. Net gains on underwriting fell to $300m in the first-half of 2014 from $2.2bn in firsthalf of 2013. The combined ratio - a key measure of losses and other underwriting expenses per dollar of premium - deteriorated to 98.9% for first-half 2014 from 98% for first-half 2013, according to ISO and PCI. "While insurers' net income rose modestly in first-half 2014, the deterioration in underwriting results and the drop in investment income both raise questions about the quality or sustainability of insurers' earnings. Other factors raising questions about the quality or sustainability of earnings include the extent to which underwriting results benefited from favourable reserve development and the extent to which insurers' net income benefited from realised capital gains dependent on developments in financial markets," said Michael Murray, ISO's assistant vice president for financial analysis. Despite the fall in operating income for the US property/casualty industry , it remains extremely well capitalised and able to handle a large loss event should it occur. However, industry experts warn that despite the benign nature of recent catastrophe seasons, it only takes one major storm to change the face of the market and to substantially reduce capacity. "The $18.2bn increase in policyholders' surplus to a record-high $671.6bn at June 30, 2014, is a testament to the strength and safety of insurers' commitment to policyholders. Insurers are strong, well capitalised, and well prepared to pay future claims," said Robert Gordon, PCI's senior vice president for policy development and research. "But it only takes one powerful storm to disrupt countless lives and cause tens of bil- 18 | 15 october 2014 lions in damage, and this hurricane season is far from over." Since 1950, there have been 15 catastrophic fourth-quarter hurricanes including Superstorm Sandy, which occurred in the last days of October 2012. Typhoon Phanfone makes landfall in Japan The Japanese city of Hamamatsu was buffeted by hurricane force winds on Monday as Typhoon Phanfone made landfall in the country. According to catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide the storm had weakened considerably by the time it made landfall with winds equal to those of a Category 1 hurricane; just five days earlier Phanfone had intensified to the equivalent of a Category 4 storm. Phanfone brought with it sustained 10-minute winds when it made landfall with wind speeds at just over 80mph with gusts of up to 115mph. “[Despite weakening] the storm nevertheless delivered torrential rain and strong winds to central Japan in general and to the Kanto region in particular,” said Anna Trevino, scientist at AIR Worldwide. “The storm was most intense in the Tokyo metropolitan area between 9 am and 10 am local time, but minutes after the eye had passed precipitation thinned into a light drizzle and blue skies appeared. “By the afternoon the storm had moved out into the Pacific and forecasters were expecting conditions to improve by nightfall. Typhoon Phanfone is now a developed low east of Japan moving northeastward at 46mph, and is no longer a major threat to the region.” Despite the progress of the storm weather advisories remain in place for most of Japan, and there are warnings currently in Iwate, Miyagi, Ibarki, Saitama, Nagano, Niigata, and Ishikawa for flood, high waves, and heavy, ground-loosening rain, said AIR. Although the strongest winds from the typhoon were on the coast, AIR notes that Tokyo experienced record wind speeds. “While the strongest winds from Typhoon Phanfone were on the immediate coast, there were near record-setting winds recorded in the city of Tokyo,” said Trevino. “A peak gust of 47 mph was recorded in Central Tokyo with a gust of 70mph at Haneda Airport. “The highest historical wind speeds for Tokyo include a 69.3mph sustained wind and a 104.5mph gust both recorded on September 1, 1938.” AIR notes that flooding from the a Phanfone’s storm surge remains a concern as does inland flooding from the storm’s heavy rainfall which brings with it the widespread risk of landslides. The catastrophe modeller said that an initial report issued by Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency at 9 pm local time indicates low counts of residential structures were impacted by the storm. "Some landslides have been reported and more may result from slope saturation, but the indications at this time are that there will not be significant insurance losses," said AIR. US homeowners eligible for drywall damages Almost 4,000 homeowners are eligible for damages from drywall manufacturer news round-up Taishan Gypsum Co after a US court ruled the Chinese firm's products had damaged homes. The judge ruled that homeowners who say Chinese drywall ruined their homes are eligible to share any further damages he may award in lawsuits against Taishan, which failed to turn up to the hearing. Notices of US District Judge Eldon Fallon's order were sent Friday to the homeowners in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Virginia, Texas and Alabama, Leonard Davis an attorney in New Orleans said revealed on Monday. According to the Associated Press (AP), Chinese drywall was used in 12,000 to 20,000 Southern-based homes and businesses following hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005 prior to the housing bubble bursting. However, certain chemicals in the drywall caused excessive odour and sometimes corroded pipes and wiring. Another manufacturer, German-owned Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co, and four of the companies it supplied agreed in 2010 to pay for home repairs. That settlement is expected to total $1.1bn, Davis said. In his ruling last week, Judge Fallon certified all the remaining plaintiffs in nine lawsuits as members of a class-action suit against Taishan. Fallon previously ordered Taishan and other defendants to pay $2.7m to owners of seven homes in Virginia. Individual awards ranged from $90,000 to $482,000, plus interest. He recently held Taishan in contempt of court for ignoring proceedings over harm done by the drywall. Innovate or perish warns Aon's Australia chief Insurers must be innovative if they are to survive and stay relevant as they face a myriad of new risks, Aon Risk Solutions’ Australia chief executive (CEO), Lambros Lambrou, has warned. Lambrou, speaking at last week’s Aon Advanced Risk Finance Conference, said traditional risks were getting larger and new risks were becoming more potent, forcing insurers to be more creative. “The real challenge for business lies in understanding and developing the tools and solutions necessary to succeed in the face of the ever-accelerating change and complexity of today’s risk landscape,” said Lambrou. Lambraou said that the breadth and potential severity of new risks poses a real threat to the industry and it is up to insurers to mitigate a potential catastrophic loss from one of these newer risks. "Our industry is very sophisticated in handling smaller risks, such as health, vehicle and even safety. There is a wealth of data and experience around these risks which informs decisions at all levels of the value chain. "However, when something goes wrong outside established "comfort zones", while it may be less frequent, it is more likely to be catastrophic. And the truth is that the risk industry has struggled to develop strategies relevant to clients' needs in the catastrophic risk space," he continued. Lambrou identified cyber risk as having potentially disastrous consequences on the industry and said that some markets, particularly Australia, remained behind on cyber risk mitigation. “The potential ramifications of cyber risk, which has been described as “the asbestos of risk”, are widely underestimated, particularly here in Australia where we are demonstrably behind the curve when it comes to even a basic understanding of the issues,” said Lambrou. Sanctions dropped on Iran's NITC European Union sanctions on Iranian oil tanker firm NITC are invalid after the EU failed to appeal a court ruling that ordered sanctions to be lifted, NITC said. An EU official told Reuters the European Union (EU) was working on remedial action for maintaining the entity on the list. NITC argues that it is privately owned by Iranian pension funds, so should not be included on the list as it has no connection with the Iranian government or revolutionary Guards. The 2012 sanctions prohibit trade between the EU, its companies and citizens, and NITC, including the providing services like insurance or banking. The EU's General Court ruled there were no grounds to blacklist NITC in the sanctions, in July. If the EU cannot carry out the remedial action required, the NITC will be able to do business with Europe, including shipping firms, and have access to potential blocked assets in the bloc. However, NITC will remains on the US government's sanctions list which will make it difficult for NITC to get international insurance, according to Reuters. Banks are also unlikely to risk exposing themselves to NITC, which could limit its access to the bigger US market. "The British Treasury said NITC was no longer subject to an asset freeze after the EU failed to appeal the court ruling," said Reuters. A six month easing on the sanctions was announced earlier this year and Iran and world leaders are trying to agree on a nuclear deal before a November 24 deadline. Capital utilisation top financial priority for US P&C Property and casualty re/insurers are increasingly focusing on utilising their capital, a survey of chief financial officers (CFOs) conducted by Towers Watson has found. Despite this being the top financial priority for those surveyed, CFOs expressed contrasting viewpoints with regard to capital utilisation over the next one to two years, according to Towers Watson. The survey revealed that most CFOs favoured internal investments in their own companies over external spending. However, at the same time, many saw the broader industry leaning toward external capital investments consistent with the search for organic and inorganic growth. When questioned about external spend, over half (54%) of the respondents cited mergers and acquisitions would be the most likely use of capital for the broader industry, while 34% noted expansion into new segments and geographies. Despite the survey's suggestion that most CFOs believed the industry would increase its external spend, only 11% of those surveyed said their own companies would utilise capital for M&A transactions, and only a fifth of the CFO questioned said they would use it for business expansion. Surveyed CFOs said their own companies were far more likely to deploy capital for internal investments such as core data systems and infrastructure (49%), data and analytics (40%), new product development (31%), and building talent and skills within the organisation (31%). While these investments in the business were the top choices, approximately 30% of CFOs also anticipate returning capital to owners through dividends or buybacks, said the Towers Watson survey. “CFOs’ notion that the market will invest in M&As may reflect recent activity in that space, an improving economy and the capital position of the industry,” said Alejandra Nolibos, director in Towers Watson’s property/casualty business. “As regards to their own organisations, the expected use of capital speaks to an 15 october 2014 | 19 people news round-up moves increasingly competitive and sophisticated market where maintaining and upgrading operations, and the development of new products and ventures, are keys to success. And while this points to companies seeing opportunities in the market in the short and long term, many still anticipate share buybacks or dividends, which may indicate lower expectations for return on equity.” The survey revealed that the second most important priority for CFOs was preparing for the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (Orsa) requirements, while the third was monitoring progress toward the renewal of the US Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (Tria). Surprisingly, despite the high priority CFOs place on Orsa and their own capital management processes, only 26% indicated their companies would be investing in internal risk management and capital utilisation capabilities in the next one to two years. “This relatively low ranking is somewhat surprising. Effective risk management is inextricably linked to informed capital utilisation decisions and a strong Orsa process,” said Nolibos. In relation to Tria, Towers Watson said that over 70% of respondents believed nonrenewal or material reduction to the act would have little to no effect on their organisation, and none expected that the non-renewal of Tria would have a severe impact on their companies. “The nature of the responses regarding Tria indicates CFOs are paying close attention to the federal government’s progress on reauthorisation, but they don’t see the existence of the federal backstop as vital to their business objectives,” said Nolibos. “This may reflect an industry on its way to implementing risk management practices through which some extreme risks are seen as manageable.” operation.” The insurer will also step up its transformation program, developed during a 2012 strategic review, including a major technology upgrade to replace current legacy systems and aims to standardise platforms used by Vero across both sides of the Tasman. “We want to be able to take advantage of Australia’s scale in the New Zealand business,” Dransfield said. “We’ll be taking platforms from the Australian general insurance business, which will enable new claims and policy platforms across the New Zealand business. Vero said the final cost for the systems upgrade will not be available until next year, but it will be “in the tens of millions” according to Dransfield. The new systems are expected to be in place in 2017. Markel Intl buys German travel MGA/broker Vero NZ restructures earthquake program Vero NZ will restructure after paying out $NZ3.7bn in its three-year Christchurch earthquake response program. The company has resolved 76% of claims and expects to have “almost all” claims finalised by the end of the year. Vero NZ chief executive officer Gary Dransfield said the appointment of the earthquake program’s general manager Jimmy Higgins to Vero’s head of claims will effectively end the dedicated earthquake response program. He told insuranceNEWS.com.au the move reflects “the great progress we’ve made with our earthquake program. In essence, our earthquake response will become a project within our claims operations rather than running in parallel as a separate claims 20 | 15 october 2014 UK-based specialist insurer Markel International has bought Germany-based managing general agent and broker MDT Makler der Touristik GmbH Assekuranzmakler, which provides insurance for the German travel sector. Founded in 2008 by Helmut Deininger, the Dreieich (near Frankfurt am Main) based business provides property and casualty package cover, combining professional indemnity, general liability, credit and office contents protection, to German travel agents, tour operators and intermediaries. It also provides travel insurance to German consumers through intermediaries and generates additional revenue from its claims handling service. The acquisition follows Markel’s purchase of Anglo Underwriting and the subsequent formation of the German Markel branch office in 2013. Markel International President and Chief Operating Officer William Stovin said: “Travel is an important part of the economy, with Germans spending €70bn annually, and MDT is strongly positioned, with Markel’s help, to grow its distribution and sales capabilities in the sector.” New NZ fault 'unlikely to impact premiums' The Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) has said the discovery of a new fault in Wellington is “unlikely” to impact on commercial or home insurance premiums. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) announced the discovery of a new active fault in Wellington Harbour after analysing data from a recent marine survey. The Aotea Fault is part of a series of several dozen geological faults in the Wellington region, many of which are considered capable of generating a strong earthquake. Scientists also said the fault does not increase Wellington’s earthquake risk in any appreciable way and that any groundshaking the Aotea fault could produce is already considered in Wellington’s seismic hazard calculations and accounted for in the building code. ICNZ chief executive officer, Tim Grafton said: "The scientific reassurances that the Aotea fault doesn’t dramatically increase Wellington’s earthquake risk appreciably will mean it’s unlikely there will be any impact on insurance premiums." "This type of research is welcomed as it gives the territorial authorities a better understanding for planning and construction of infrastructure across the fault," added Grafton. people moves ing its portfolio of traditional ‘major risks’ whilst at the same time developing niche Speciality Liability products. “At a time when competitors are enhancing their positions locally, we are committed to supporting our London based Wholesale partners with added product and service capability,” said Dougall. Canopius makes two marine treaty hires Lockton Asia appoints new Greater China head Lockton Asia has raided rival JLT for its new chief executive for Greater China as it looks to develop its business in the region and prepare for the much-anticipated growth of the country’s insurance industry. Alex Yip has joined Lockton Asia as chief executive for Greater China, a role which sees him lead the broker’s operations in both China and Hong Kong. He joins the firm having left his previous position as chairman and general manager of JLT China, a role which saw him run offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In his new role, Yip will utilise his closeto 30 years of industry experience to develop Lockton Asia’s business in the region as well as oversee the broker’s strategic planning in the Greater China market. “The China insurance market developed at an incredible pace over the last two decades,” said Yip. “There are already more than 100 insurers covering the life and non-life segments, and approximately 1,000 intermediaries, such as brokers, agents and loss adjusters, operating in the country. With a vast amount of insurance capital, as well as underwriting capacity, flowing into the market, competition is increasing and premium pricing rates are dropping.” There is little doubt that insurance penetration in China continues to rise despite growth in the country’s economy slowing down compared with its heyday of the past few years. According to Swiss Re’s sigma study World Insurance in 2013, China recorded total non-life premium volume of more than $125.8bn in 2013, an increase of 20.7% compared with the previous year. Despite the expansion, there is a growing sentiment the cost of cover in the region will now fall as more companies enter the market and insurers get a better understanding of the risks they are confronted with. "Short term trends are hard to pick,” said Yip. “Although there is a feeling that the market will soften, the size, scale, and increasing regulatory oversight of the Chinese insurance industry means there will always be opportunities for quality operators. New product lines and coverage policies, being offered by international insurers, are increasingly attracting the attention of the country's insurance buyers who are becoming more and more risk and insurance minded.” MSIG hires class underwriter MSIG at Lloyd’s has appointed Michelle Shaw as an international liability class underwriter. Shaw has almost three decades’ experience in international liability underwriting and broking. Since 2000 she was involved in developing QBE’s London based international liability operations. Most recently she was portfolio manager, international liability managing a large book of business with an emphasis on Latin America, Asia and the Caribbean. “Securing the services of Michelle is a major boost to the continued expansion of our Liability proposition globally, particularly given her depth of experience and contacts in emerging market territories,” said Andrew Dougall, long tail underwriting manager. “Our liability team has enhanced its position significantly over recent years, expand- Canopius has appointed Andy Gladwin as head of marine treaty and Oliver Goodwin as marine treaty underwriter, both with immediate effect. The Marine Treaty business comprises both London market and foreign excess of loss business. Gladwin will lead the team, reporting to Stephen Gargrave, chief executive officer of global specialty. Gladwin has over 25 years’ reinsurance experience, predominantly in the marine market. He joins from Swiss Re, where, for the last seven years, he led the London marine treaty team, overseeing its strategy and management. Goodwin joins from Antares where, as marine excess of loss underwriter, he wrote a diverse portfolio of marine and energy reinsurance split between foreign market and London market excess of loss business. “These appointments give a clear signal of our commitment to develop our current marine treaty offering,” said Gargrave. “Andy has a great reputation in the marine treaty market, based on his leadership, specialist underwriting expertise and excellent track record. “Oliver gained valuable experience in broking before turning to underwriting, and he will also enhance the analytical skills of the team,” he said. Aviva appoints Hessing Irish CEO Aviva has appointed Hugh Hessing as its Ireland chief executive officer, replacing Alison Burns, who is stepping down for family reasons. Burns will stay with Aviva, but will become a board member of Aviva Health. Hessing previously worked at group level and joined Aviva in 2006 as a director in the company’s general insurance business. He was more recently customer experience direction in its British life insurance arm. Before Aviva Hessing was a director at KPMG. 15 october 2014 | 21 people moves Vibhu Sharma Sharma to become Zurich head of non-life in UK Zurich Insurance Group has named group controller Vibhu Sharma as head of general insurance operations for the UK. Sharma will take up his post in April 2015, replacing David Smith, who will retire. Sharma has been Group Controller for Zurich since 2012, based in Zurich. He joined the insurer in 2008 as chief financial officer in North America. Prior to that he had been with KPMG for 17 years, as well as with John B Collins Associates, where he became COO. Sharma, born in India, graduated in accounting in Dallas, Texas. XL's reinsurance head to retire Jamie Veghte, the chief executive of XL Group's reinsurance business, will retire on December 31, 2014. XL is searching for a replacement. "On behalf of all my colleagues, I want to thank Jamie for his two decades of service Jamie Veghte to and stewardship of XL," said XL's chief executive officer, Mike McGavick. "In a tumultuous industry, Jamie has been steadfast, building our reinsurance segment into the strong operation it is today - built on intelligent underwriting, solid judgment, and superior client and broker relationships - all of which are traits that come personally from Jamie's leadership. "Jamie has also built one of the finest teams in the industry. Their tenure and particular market knowledge has served us very well and we are extremely confident in the continued success of the franchise," said McGavick. Veghte was appointed as XL's reinsurance chief in 2006. He previously had various roles within XL including president of XL Re America, chief operating officer of XL Re Europe and President of XL Re Latin America. Prior to joining XL, Veghte held various positions with Winterthur Reinsurance Company of America and Mid Ocean Re. ANV makes two consumer product hires ANV has appointed Sanjay Vara as head of consumer products for ANV Syndicate 5820 as ANV continues to make strategic investments into its core consumer products business. Vara will oversee the strategy and development of ANV’s growing warranty portfolio and pursuing global market oppor- tunities as well as developing partnerships with London Market clients. Before joining ANV, Vara was partner at Lloyd & Partners and was managing director, Asia Pacific Warranty at AmTrust Europe. He is recognised in the market for his previous work as underwriting director at Domestic & General and Homeserve Warranties where he pioneered many of their key warranty products and schemes. Joining Vara will be Colin Parker as underwriter responsible for developing the consumer products portfolio. Parker joins ANV from Assurant Solutions where he worked predominantly in the development, pricing, reserving, modelling and analysis of creditor, warranty and wireless protection products. For ANV Syndicates, senior underwriter Phillip Pearce remains at ANV Syndicate 5820 and will continue to grow the consumer products business. Pearce will continue to be supported by Tom Griggs, assistant underwriter, who joined the Syndicate in 2012. ANV Syndicate 5820 underwrites consumer products, property & casualty, political risk & terror and political & credit risk business. Matthew Fairfield, founder and chief executive officer of ANV, said: “In a rapidly changing world, distribution and use of insurance products are changing every day. “The continued quality of our leadership, our team and our thinking will be the key to embrace and leverage these changes. “We welcome Sanjay and Colin who add to the deep bench strength of ANV’s Consumer Products team. We congratulate Philip and Tom for their new roles on our ANV team,” said Fairfield. QBE Europe appoints new chair QBE’s European operation has appointed Tim Ingram as its new chairman after it was announced that Sir Brian Pomeroy was to step down. Ingram, who was appointed as a nonexecutive director at the Australian insurer in March, will chair QBE Underwriting and QBE Insurance in Europe. He was previously chairman of Collins Stewart Hawkpoint, and also chairs the Wealth Management Association and Greencoat UK Wind. Sir Brian Pomeroy, the company’s previous chairman for Europe, is stepping down after eight years, following his appointment to the board of QBE Europe’s Australian parent company, QBE Insurance Group. QBE Europe also announced the appointment of Stuart Sinclair as senior independent director. 22 | 15 october 2014 people moves Sinclair previously worked as president and CEO of GE Financial Services in the UK and in China, as well as CEO of Tesco Personal Finance. JLT Re appoints head of facilities division The experienced founder of Oxford Insurance Brokers has joined JLT Re as its new head of facilities in yet another move which the company believes will support its significant expansion plan. Neill Cotton has formally joined JLT Re as head of its facilities division after he left his previous position as commercial director at CFC. Prior to joining CFC, Cotton had established Lloyd's Oxford Insurance Brokers Ltd where he held the titles of managing director and chief executive. “Neill brings a wealth of industry experience to our growing Facilities capability and we are committed to investing in this business for future growth,” said Keith Harrison chief executive for UK & Europe at JLT Re. “Neill’s drive, determination and ability to build relationships are a perfect fit for the collaborative and positive culture at JLT Re.” Cotton's career started in 1980 at CT Bowring in International Reinsurance claims, when he left he was International Reinsurance Claims Director. He then moved to the underwriting side at Lloyd’s where he worked with both Zurich Re and CNA Re. “I am delighted to be joining JLT Re,” said Cotton. “With the commitment JLT Re has made to invest and build on the opportunities they are seeing in the market I am excited to be joining the team and look forward to contributing to the ongoing success.” The addition to the broker’s London team comes just over a month after former chief executive Alastair Speare-Cole stepped down from the helm of JLT Re. Mike Reynolds, formerly the reinsurance broker's finance director, was appointed global CEO of JLT Re following SpeareCole’s decision and will retain that role as well of his new responsibilities until the end of the year. Former Liberty Mutual executive joins CIAB Former Liberty Mutual lobbyist Amy Roberti has joined the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers (CIAB) as its new vice president of industry affairs. Roberti had been vice president of federal affairs at Liberty Mutual for almost 10 years before departing to undertake her new role at the CIAB. In her new role on CIAB’s strategic resources team, Roberti will be responsible for analysing commercial property/casualty and group health insurance market conditions, macro and micro events, and issues and trends impacting insurance brokers. She will develop policy positions and correlating resources for CIAB’s member firms to utilize as they continue to evolve the way they advise and serve clients said the council. Prior to joining Liberty Mutual she had been a staffer for Congressman Tim Holden, a former insurance broker who represented Pennsylvania’s 17th district for over a decade before losing his bid for renomination in 2012. “Amy is an exciting addition to The Council and brings a combination of government affairs experience, issue analysis and underwriting knowledge that will be a tremendous asset as we expand our business intelligence offerings for members,” said Ken Crerar, president and chief executive (CEO) of CIAB. CIAB announced in September that it had added seven firms to its number, a total of 21 throughout 2014. The body has been a particularly vocal advocate of the renewal of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (Tria), publishing a statement in June encouraging a solution to be reached in the House. Roberti's previous company Liberty Mutual have also been strong supporters of the programme. The insurer set up a Tria lobbying site during the previous renewal negotiations in 2005 shortly after Roberti joined the company. Aquiline adds Worley to re/ insurance portfolio Aquiline Capital Partners has added to its portfolio of re/insurance industry investments after taking a majority interest in Worley Claims Services. Worley, one of the leading claims adjustment service providers in the US, was founded in 1976 and, as Jeff Greenberg, Aquiline’s chief executive explained, has “an impressive track record of efficiently managing claims for its clients after catastrophic events and on a daily basis”. Michael Worley, the claims firm’s chief executive, said: “Aquiline’s deep understanding of our business and its proven track record across the insurance industry make them our ideal partner.” “We are extremely appreciative of our former shareholders, Seaport Capital and Advantage Capital, and we are excited to engage with Aquiline to pursue opportunities to further strengthen and expand our client value proposition.” Following the conclusion of the transaction, Michael Worley and the rest of the company’s management team will be investing alongside Aquiline and own a significant equity interest in the firm. Aquiline already has a significant portfolio of investments in the re/insurance industry with Equity Red Star, Ark Insurance, Pillar Capital Management and Validus Group just some of those in which the company holds a stake in. The private equity firm also used to hold investments in both the Rod Fox-fronted TigerRisk Partners and The Wright Insurance Group. 15 october 2014 | 23 people moves portunity to come and lead Advisen. “I have followed Advisen since it was founded in 2000,” he said. “I believe that Advisen is uniquely positioned to provide the insurance industry with leading news, information, data, analytics, and technology. “What Advisen has accomplished so far is just the beginning. I look forward to Advisen’s continued success and I’m thrilled to be a part of the team.” Keogh will join Advisen on October 20, following the departure of former CEO and Advisen co-founder, Tom Ruggieri to Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford. “We are confident that Bill brings with him the right experience, perspective, and skills to continue Advisen’s successful growth across the company,” said David Bradford, co-founder and president of Advisen's research & editorial division. “Given his background in P&C insurance and reinsurance and his proven track record building insurance analytics businesses, he was the natural choice to lead Advisen as CEO.” Markel hires senior underwriter Willis Re hands Wildbore APMETA role Willis Re has handed Richard Wildbore the title of regional director for the Indian subcontinent, Middle East, Africa and Turkey (APMETA West) region with the remit of building out the reinsurance broker’s resources in the area. Wildbore most recently helped launch Willis Re’s operations in Canada, a role which saw him open an office in the country’s biggest city Toronto back in 2010. “[Wildbore] has a successful track record in establishing and growing the Willis Re franchise internationally,” said Willis Re’s managing director Maurice Williams. “Under his guidance Willis Re will continue to invest in building resources in the APMETA West region to match our clients' growth and their constantly evolving and increasingly sophisticated risk management needs.” Based in London, Wildbore will work closely with Willis Re’s local treaty reinsurance teams across the APMETA West region. That unit forms part of Willis Re’s wider APMETA team which is led by Williams who is also situated in London. figures in the insurance analytics and data market. He joins Advisen from Ultimate Risk Solutions (URS) where he is currently the CEO. He has more than 25 years in the insurance industry working in insurance and reinsurance across the US, Europe, and Latin America. Keogh started his insurance industry career as an underwriter at AIG and then moved into increasingly responsible underwriting positions at NAC Reinsurance and Swiss Re. His career in analytics began when Keogh joined RMS, the world's largest catastrophe modelling company, where he ultimately led their global client development team. In 2008 he joined Eqecat where, as its president, he guided the design and roll-out of the new RQE platform. Just prior to his current role at URS, Keogh was a senior member of the decision support team at TigerRisk Partners. Keogh expressed his delight at the op- Markel International has appointed Andrew Carter as senior underwriter for marine and energy liability. Carter previously worked at QBE for 19 years and was most recently as portfolio manager for marine liability. He also oversaw the marine liability business written by QBE’s US operations. At Markel Carter will be working with Chris Fenn and Charles Bragg to expand the company’s business in the marine liability, energy liability and ports and terminals classes. “We are delighted to welcome Andrew to Markel where he will be a great asset to the team. He has held a senior position at QBE for many years and he brings a wealth of experience and contacts to the Markel team,” said Paul Jenks, divisional managing director of marine and energy. Keogh appointed as new Advisen CEO Analytics and data company Advisen has announced the appointment of Bill Keogh as its new chief executive (CEO). Keogh is one of the most prominent 24 | 15 october 2014 Bill Keogh Andrew Carter