VANCOUVER – The Fort McMurray wildfire, though not on the same scale, shared many characteristics of the 2011 Thai floods and New Zealand earthquakes, Joel Baker, president and CEO of the National Insurance Conference of Canada (NICC), said Thursday at…
OTTAWA – A new government report says that by the end of this century a changing climate is expected to at least double the area burned each year by forest fires in Canada. The 2015 annual forest assessment by Natural…
Despite seeing a “major claims increase due primarily to the Fort McMurray fires in Alberta, Canada” and a challenging market environment, Lloyd’s of London has reported a profit of 1.46 billion pounds – or nearly $2.5 billion – for the…
LONDON – The senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada says investors and those in the financial system need to adapt to the reality of slower growth and associated low interest rates. In a speech to the Official Monetary…
Advances in the development of “visual intelligence” based on multiple data sources, including satellite imagery and drone footage, have the potential to significantly enhance claims and catastrophe response processes and underwriting decision making when companies harness that potential effectively, according…
Willis Towers Watson plc reported Monday the combined ratio for its index of top reinsurers was 94.1% during the first six months of 2016, up 2.6 points from 91.5% during the same period as 2015, during a time when insurers…
OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada struck a note of caution Wednesday as it held its key interest rate target steady at 0.5 per cent and raised concerns after the export sector disappointed earlier this year. “While the strength in…
A year of fire and floods in North America could lead to a repeat of 2007, when reinsurance disputes emerged over causation issues, a lawyer with global law firm CMS said on Friday. Alex Denslow, a partner with the Insurance…
The Fort McMurray wildfire accounted for 98% of first-half insured catastrophe losses in Canada and 29% of Property Claim Services (PCS)-designated North American cat losses for the period, according to a preliminary estimate from the company. Insurers affected by the…
Total economic losses from disaster events in the first half of the year rose by 38% to US$71 billion from the same time last year, primarily due to natural catastrophes, according to preliminary sigma estimates from Swiss Re. Of the…
Insured losses arising from the Fort McMurray, Alberta wildfire are estimated at $4.67 billion, Verisk Analytics Inc.’s Property Claims Services said in a bulletin this week. The wildfire in May was the most expensive natural catastrophe in Canadian history, when…
Levis, Que.-based Desjardins General Insurance Group (DGIG) released its second quarter financial results on Friday, reporting an estimated expense of $30.2 million after reinsurance and income taxes related to the Fort McMurray wildfire and a combined ratio of 99.1%. “The…