Topic
Earnings / Ratings
Is Canada still heading toward a recession?
April 21, 2023 by Jason ContantCanada will likely not experience a recession in the traditional sense but rather a ‘shallow downturn,’ BMO Financial Group’s chief economist Douglas Porter said at an industry event Thursday. “I’m reluctant to call what we’re looking at in Canada a…
Why consumers may feel the impact of higher reinsurance costs for insurers
April 19, 2023 by David GambrillCanada’s primary insurers will need to run at sustained combined operating ratios of 95% or lower in the future in order to withstand future NatCat losses (and the cost of reinsuring them), without having to pass costs on to consumers,…
Will Canada’s 2023 underwriting results track U.S. improvements?
April 19, 2023 Philip PoradoCanadian insurers, like their U.S. counterparts, may see some better underwriting results this year. In the U.S., property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry underwriting results are likely to improve during 2023, in response to significant premium increases in underperforming automobile…
2 reasons why Canadian P&C industry’s hard market may linger
April 18, 2023 by David GambrillComing out of the pandemic, the global economic environment still contains two ingredients for ongoing hard market conditions in Canada’s P&C insurance sector — high inflation, and a lack of global reinsurance capacity. “If you look at the picture behind…
How Canada’s Top 5 carriers performed in 2022
April 13, 2023 by Jason ContantCanada’s Top 5 insurers — Intact, Aviva, Desjardins, TD Insurance and The Co-operators — wrote a combined 42% of the insurance business in the country in 2022, but each showed different growth trends, MSA Research said in its latest quarterly…
Bank of Canada holds key interest rate at 4.5%, bumps up growth forecast for 2023
April 12, 2023 The Canadian PressOTTAWA – The Bank of Canada is once again holding its key interest rate steady at 4.5 per cent but isn’t ruling out the possibility of more rate hikes down the line. The central bank said Wednesday that recent economic…
Canada heading into ‘mild recession,’ Deloitte report suggests
March 28, 2023 The Canadian PressOTTAWA – New research says Canada is heading into a mild recession as elevated borrowing costs, a downturn in the U.S. and persistent inflation dial up the country’s economic uncertainty. Deloitte Canada’s latest economic outlook, released ahead of the federal…
How the reinsurance sector netted out after renewals
March 23, 2023 by David GambrillInflation took a small bite of out of global reinsurers’ generally profitable combined ratios, and rising interest rates made a 27% dent in the reinsurers’ shareholder equity, but overall the global reinsurance sector came out of 2022 in decent shape,…
High interest rates crater the P&C industry’s investment income
March 21, 2023 by David GambrillDespite an 8% increase in direct premiums written in 2022, and generally stabilizing—if not decreasing—loss ratios in several key business lines, Canadian P&C insurers’ net investment returns took a huge hit from the impact of rising interest rates last year,…
Six to 10% of Canadian homes aren’t insurable for flooding, industry stats show
March 10, 2023 by David GambrillWhen it comes to Canadian homes being resilient against severe water damage wrought by climate change, a significant portion of them aren’t insurable for flooding, says Aviva Canada CEO Jason Storah. Storah was speaking to Canadian Underwriter about the company’s…
Where Aviva Canada’s 2022 results rank them in Canada’s P&C marketplace
March 9, 2023 by David GambrillAviva Canada’s year-end 2022 P&C results have vaulted the company into second place in the Canadian market, the company’s CEO announced Thursday. “Aviva Canada delivered strong results for fiscal year 2022, achieving a combined operating ratio of 92.5% (90.7% in…
How four P&C insurers closed out 2022
March 8, 2023 by Alyssa DiSabatinoFour of Canada’s publicly-traded insurance companies — Intact Financial Corporation, Definity Financial Corporation, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, and Trisura Group — reported strong underwriting performance and “very good” combined ratios for the final quarter of 2022, DBRS Morningstar says in…