Property and casualty insurance market cycles are by no means ‘dead’ — not because of insurers’ competitive behaviour, but because claims cost shocks often trigger the need to shore up pricing, according to Intact Financial Corporation CEO Charles Brindamour. Brindamour…
Intact is predicting a firming of its auto insurance rates in Canada, where brokers and consumers can expect the company to increase auto rates by percentages in the upper single digits by the end of 2022. In its personal lines…
OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada hiked its key interest rate by half of a percentage point Wednesday and said rates will need to rise further to clamp down on decades-high inflation. Since March, the central bank has raised its…
TORONTO – A new KPMG survey has found Canada’s small and medium-sized businesses are banking on strong growth in the next three years, even as a possible economic downturn remains top of mind in the near term. The survey of…
Recent merger deals announced by Canadian commercial P&C brokerages increasingly feature acquisitions of wealth management and employee benefits firms, and this is no accident, brokers tell Canadian Underwriter. This subset of M&A is about P&C brokerages becoming a type of…
Bond investments make up a large percentage of insurance companies’ investment portfolios. And bond investors have faced challenges throughout 2022, with rising yields causing returns to lag at historic levels, Michael Cook, vice president, client relations & LDI client portfolio…
Profitable insurance companies mean stable and reliable protection for insureds during a time of uncertainty, and the property and casualty insurance industry in Canada should not be shy about reinforcing this message, industry execs told the NICC Conference in Halifax…
OTTAWA – Inflation in Canada is cooling faster than expected, but economists don’t expect the Bank of Canada to back down from its fight just yet. The annual inflation rate slowed to 7.0 per cent in August, Statistics Canada said…
Interest rates will keep going up. But that won’t be entirely negative for the insurance industry, or the longer-term fundamentals of the broader economy, suggested a new Sigma report from Swiss Re. Its authors called for two fundamental changes on…
Definity Financial Corporation is maintaining its goal of becoming a Top 5 insurance company through a combination of organic growth and M&A activity, Definity president and CEO Rowan Saunders suggested during a recent financial services conference. “One of the drivers…
Canada’s Top 10 property and casualty insurers control almost three-quarters of the marketplace, with the remaining participants competing for the balance of available premium, ratings agency AM Best said during an industry event Friday. The Top 10 P&C carriers control…
Countries are starting to restructure their supply chains, a ‘de-globalizing’ phenomenon that could generate $33 billion in new global commercial P&C insurance premiums over the next four years, Swiss Re predicted. In one example, ‘re-shoring’ supply chains means moving commercial…