MFX recently entered into a three-year contract to manage all IT infrastructure and operations for the Matlen Silver Group, an integrated business and technology solutions provider headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey. Under the terms of the contract, Matlen Silver’s IT…
Willis Group Holdings, Ltd. (NYSE: WSH), is strengthening its Canadian presence through the appointments of four new insurance professionals to its Canadian operations. Robert Kudzman, formerly partner and senior consultant at Jones Brown, will join Willis as vice president. Kudzman…
New Remediation Process for Water Damage Could Save Insurers ‘Billions’
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently introduced the new “Top Safety Pick” award and the very first gold winners are the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego with optional side air bags (the Five Hundred and Montego are corporate…
Each month of this special 70th anniversary year, Canadian Underwriter will look back at a pivotal period in the industry’s history. These are the people, events and issues that have shaped Canadian Underwriter and the insurance industry for seven decades.
Insuring Canada’s rapidly growing film and entertainment industry is a niche business fraught with perils of ego-driven cast members, property risks and copyright lawsuits. As a result, insurance coverage remains tight and expensive, with only a handful of insurers and brokers willing to take center-stage.
Canadian commercial insurance buyers have had little to celebrate with the record rate increases and tight terms faced over the past two or more years. Now, with reinsurers and insurers reporting stronger results, risk managers’ expectations of better pricing are starting to surface. However, insurers and brokers warn, risk managers who look for the loose underwriting standards and coverage giveaways of the past, do so at their own peril.
There are a lot of things wrong with insurer income statements and balance-sheets these days – lackluster investment returns, rising claims costs, persistently bad underwriting results – all of which have put tremendous pressure on company “cost centers” to prove their worth. Information technology (IT) departments are no exception, with increased expectations for a return on investment. In an environment where vendors have come and gone, and many solutions have not lived up to the hype, insurers might be tempted to scale back IT investments. But, with a turn in insurer fortunes expected to come in the next year to 18 months, insurance companies can ill afford to be caught lagging, say experts. IT, they say, could well be a pivotal part of that return to profitability.
The B.C. government’s announcement toward the end of last year that it plans to maintain crown insurer the Insurance Corp. of British Columbia’s (ICBC) monopoly position in providing basic auto coverage has left a bad taste in the mouth of…
The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) was recently honored for its one-hour documentary “Stolen to Order”, which won the 2001 Silver World Medal at the New York Festivals Television Programming and Promotion Competition. The feature on auto theft was hosted…
Profitability is the “first line of defence” for insurers facing rough financial times, says the country’s top regulator. In a speech to the Empire Club, superintendent Nick Le Pan of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions notes that…
Prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, reinsurers operating in Canada were adamant that 2002 treaty renewals would have to reflect general rate adjustments in the order of 15% to 25%. Most companies were mindful, however, of the prevailing and excessive competition within the Canadian marketplace, and in this respect seemed more hopeful than resolved that the rate adjustments they hoped to seek for next year would be achieved. The post-September 11 reinsurance landscape has changed dramatically. Covers available at “less-than-cost” pricing have vanished to be replaced by a steely attitude to both the terms and pricing of coverage. Reinsurers partaking in CU’s annual “Reinsurance Strategy Outlook” offer little hope for cheap pricing as the global cost impact of the terrorist attacks begins to bite. The message is clear: “The bargain days are over”.