Canadian Underwriter


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the drive for Safer Roads

September 1, 1999 Lowell Conn

Canadian automobile insurers wrote a combined $9.3 billion in earned premiums in 1998 while incurring losses of $7.0 billion. This 77.45 loss ratio ranks second only to accident & sickness as the worst loss experience category among all property &

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U.S. Reinsurance Market PRICING STABILIZES

September 1, 1999 Sean Mooney, senior vice president at Guy Carpenter & Company In

Following a lengthy period of stagnation, pricing within the U.S. reinsurance market seems to have stabilized, with even some evidence in the market of rate increases. However, until the market’s excess capacity is depleted, buyers of reinsurance will continue to enjoy the benefits of highly competitive pricing.

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Y2K: rollingthe dice

September 1, 1999 Sean van Zyl, Editor

With year 2000 reinsurance treaty negotiationscurrently in full swing, there is a desperate hope among the players that rates will return to moresensible levels. However, faced with increasedcompetition, both locally and globally, reinsurersanticipate a long road ahead before the soft

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CRIMS 99 Conference highlights

August 1, 1999 by Canadian Underwriter

Monday, September 20 Plenary session at 8:30am examining Swiss Air Flight 111 which crashed off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. How did the government of Nova Scotia deal with this terrible tragedy and what lessons can be learned? Government

KOVACS
Feature

Canadian First-Quarter Weak

August 1, 1999 by Canadian Underwriter

Business conditions for the Canadian property and casualty insurance industry remained weak for the first quarter of this year, with auto and personal property showing increased loss ratios across Ontario and Atlantic Canada, says Paul Kovacs in the Insurance Bureau

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Bell fire losses minimal

August 1, 1999 by Canadian Underwriter

The insurance industry got off lightly from the July 16 fire at a downtown Toronto Bell Canada switching station in which phone service was cut off for 113,000 downtown homes and offices for nearly five hours. Initial estimates had the

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Managing web exposures

August 1, 1999 Marcus Snowden, partner at McCague, Wires, Peacock, Borlack & Ll

With e-commerce widely predicted to explode into the mainstream world of business in coming years, the lure of “getting into the ‘net game” before it becomes too late is almost irresistible for most companies. In particular, the Internet is expected

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Disaster Loss mitigation: Great Balls of Hail

August 1, 1999 Alan Pang, managing director at the Institute for Catastrophic L

Over recent years the largest catastrophic loss payments of most insurers have resulted from prairie hailstorms. During the 1990s, there have been six major storms, each causing catastrophic losses in excess of $50 million. The National Hail Conference, recently held

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Counting the PENNIES

July 1, 1999 Sean van Zyl, Editor

The numbers say it all. Canada’s property and casualty insurance industry suffered one of its worst year-on-year performances last year, posting a modest return on investment of 7.1% — nearly half of 1997’s rate of return. Heavy underwriting losses incurred

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99 Canadian Insurance Congress: Marching to new Drummers

July 1, 1999 Lowell Conn & Sean van Zyl

Held against the backdrop of the nation’s capital, the 1999 Canadian Insurance Congress — seen as Canada’s premier reinsurer/primary company CEO forum — offered good news to insurers and risk managers on the treaty negotiation front. This year’s reinsurance rates,

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RIMS 99: HOLISTIC RISKON THE HORIZON

June 1, 1999 Lowell Conn

Dallas, Texas was the site of the Risk & Insurance Management Society’s recent 37th annual conference and exhibition where 4500 delegates met, networked, and examined a profession undergoing large-scale transformation.

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Oklahoma tornadoes further catastrophe losses

June 1, 1999 by Canadian Underwriter

Arecent tornado that hit Oklahoma has become the worst insured catastrophe in the state’s history, according to preliminary information released by the Property Claim Services (PCS) unit of Insurance Services Office (ISO). The storm system caused $955 million in insured