An increase in small hurricanes making landfall this season, in addition to the high level of catastrophe losses insurers have already absorbed during the first half of 2008, will likely bring a dose of reality to the competitive property cat…
Pricing risks, particularly the rising cost of energy, is currently the most pressing supply chain risk, a Marsh survey of 110 risk managers has found. With oil topping US$139 a barrel in mid-June, energy prices are creating significant margin pressures…
Insured losses caused by Hurricane Gustav could range from US$2 billion to US$10 billion according to initial estimates. Gustav came ashore near Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans, on Sept. 1 as a relatively fast-moving Category 2…
Although an ongoing shipping boom continues unabated, insurers remain concerned the skyrocketing cost of steel may cause shipyards in some countries to cut back on the quality of steel used in shipbuilding.“This, coupled with the growth of new, but relatively…
Two insurers, Royal & SunAlliance (now RSA) and Aviva Insurance Company of Canada, have lost their appeals from an arbitration under the loss transfer provisions of s. 275 of the Ontario Insurance Act. The arbitration arose from an incident occurring…
Although New Orleans’ levees have been strengthened since Hurricane Katrina ripped through them three years ago, they are not scheduled for completion until 2011, leaving the city “far from protected” as Tropical Storm Gustav approaches, according to the Seattle Times.…
Natural catastrophe (nat cat) bonds, currently the main insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset class, have proven generally resilient during the capital market’s turbulence over the past year, with the acid test being the current credit crunch, reports Standard & Poor’s.The pricing…
Surplus lines insurers outperformed the property and casualty industry in underwriting and operating performance in 2007, but the softening market and more aggressive competition portend deterioration in profitability for this sector (absent a catastrophe that curtails the incursion of standard…
Kingsway Financial Services Inc. is selling York Fire & Casualty Insurance Company to La Capitale General Insurance Inc., a member company of the mutual company La Capitale Financial Group Inc., which is owned by members of Quebec’s civil service. The…
FirstOnSite Restoration L.P. has acquired Ezi-Way Cleaning Services Ltd. of Charlottetown, P.E.I and Ezi-Way Disaster Kleenup (Moncton) Ltd. of Moncton, N.B.“With this acquisition we have considerably strengthened our position in the Maritimes,” said Ian Milne, FirstOnSite’s CEO. The new acquisitions…
Canadian and U.S. property and casualty reserves were modest at year-end 2007, but Fitch Ratings predicts that reserve redundancy will begin to decline moving forward amid eroding market conditions and increasing accident-year loss ratios.In its report, Fitch Ratings examines the…
Carstar Automotive Canada has created two new regional director positions aimed to help the company develop three distinct regions of operation within Canada. Bob Gagnon will assume the role of regional director eastern Canada (Quebec and the Maritimes), bringing to…