Topic
Catastrophes
Cat bond issuance at record high in Q2
July 8, 2014 by Canadian UnderwriterTwelve catastrophe bonds totaling US$4.5 billion were issued in the second quarter of this year, the most of any quarter in the history of the insurance-linked securities market, Aon Benfield Securities reported Tuesday. For the first half of the year,…
Quarterly loss & adjustment expenses for U.S. P&C carriers up ‘for the first time’ since Superstorm Sandy
July 7, 2014 by Canadian UnderwriterPrivate property and casualty insurers in the United States experienced a 2.6-point year-over-year increase in their first-quarter combined ratio and a 51% drop in their net underwriting gain, as loss and adjustment expenses rose more quickly than premiums, according to…
Powerful earthquake shakes southern Mexico, Guatemala; at least 3 dead
July 7, 2014 THE ASSOCIATED PRESSTUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico – A magnitude-6.9 earthquake on the Pacific Coast jolted a wide area of southern Mexico and Central America Monday, killing at least two people and damaging dozens of homes. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit…
8% of housing units in U.S. located in counties at very high risk for natural disasters: report
July 4, 2014 by Canadian UnderwriterA recent report that assigns a natural disaster risk score to more than 3,000 county housing markets in the United States found that about 8% of the 131 million U.S. housing units were located in very high-risk counties. The total…
Insured losses from windstorm Ela in June total 650 million euros to date
July 4, 2014 by Canadian UnderwriterGerman insurers have reported about 350,000 property and vehicle claims amounting to 650 million euros in the wake of hail and windstorm Ela, which hit the country last month and inflicted the most serious damage in North Rhine-Westphalia, notes a…
RMS plans to give governments access to multi-peril risk modeling tool
July 4, 2014 by Canadian UnderwriterRisk Management Solutions Inc. recently announced it plans to partner with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction to offer governments access to its RMS(one) catastrophe modelling product. “The UNISDR’s new global, multi-peril, probabilistic risk model will be freely…
One year after rail disaster, Lac Megantic businesses struggle to rebuild
July 4, 2014 Andy Blatchford, THE CANADIAN PRESSMONTREAL – Claude Charron’s most-recent visit to his Lac-Megantic pharmacy called for head lamps, hard hats and masks to block the pervasive stench of petroleum. A year has passed since his Quebec town was ground zero for a railway disaster,…
Four big wells injecting wastewater from energy drilling trigger more than 100 quakes
July 3, 2014 Seth Borenstein, THE ASSOCIATED PRESSWASHINGTON – A new study explains how just four wells forcing massive amounts of drilling wastewater into the ground are probably shaking up Oklahoma. Those wells seem to have triggered more than 100 small-to-medium earthquakes in the past five years,…
More must be done to prevent another oil by rail disaster, critics say
July 3, 2014 Jim Bronskill, THE CANADIAN PRESSOTTAWA – Periodic flurries of federal regulation, rule-making and reassurance followed the rail disaster last July that killed 47 people, destroyed dozens of buildings and contaminated waterways in a small Quebec town. But one year after the tragedy in Lac-Megantic,…
New federal rail, dangerous goods requirements announced
July 2, 2014 by Canadian UnderwriterFederal transport minister Lisa Raitt has announced new requirements for railways – including those revolving around the transportation of dangerous goods – that seek to help build a stronger safety culture among railway companies, strengthen containment and help reduce the…
Caught in the Vortex
July 1, 2014 Greg Meckbach, Associate EditorTwo separate tornadoes that touched down in southern Ontario this June are not expected to trigger reinsurance. And although the “jury is still out” on whether or not twisters are becoming more intense, the economic losses from convective storms are clearly on the rise.
Strengthening Quake Preparedness
July 1, 2014 Justin Moresco, Manager, Model Product Management, RMSNew guidelines from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions will require property and casualty insurers operating in Canada to consider their exposure across the entire country. However, the guidelines do not consider earthquake risk from a fully probabilistic perspective, which could have implications for some insurers.