What’s New: In Brief (March 06, 2008)

The aerospace insurance market softened in 2007, responding to the high level of capacity and low level of losses in the aviation industry over the past five years, according to Aon’s Aerospace Insurance Market Review of 2007.
“The average 6% reduction in lead premium was not as significant as the fall witnessed in the airline insurance market, but the direction was consistent across the manufacturer, service provider and airport sectors that comprise the aerospace insurance market,” Aon Corporation reported in a release.
The aerospace insurance market saw modest reductions in the price of lead premium throughout 2007, but there were differences in the way the different sectors within the market were treated, Doug Peterson, Aon aviation and aerospace group practice leader, said in the release.
“This suggests the markets are pricing insurance programs according to their actual level of risk, rather than simply applying an industry average year-on-year price change,” he noted.

Cyber-risks could be the next big trigger for lawsuits against directors, Aon Corporation warned at a seminar on data management for U.K. companies.
Directors could be held responsible for loss to companies and their shareholders if they failed their duty of care by not taking preventative measures against risks such as phishing (sending e-mails posing as a legitimate business enterprise in order to obtain information that might later be used for identity theft), improper data manipulation or data loss.
“The threat to directors is universal across all sectors, as any company utilizing technology as a platform or for business support is exposed,” the company notes. “In particular, financial institutions need to be very concerned due to the dependence on the confidentiality of their data and the overall exposure relating to online banking.”