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3rd June 2018

Newslink Global Insurance Trends-The Week
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This week, the EY Annual Specialty Results analysis highlighted that the UK specialty insurance market suffered the costliest year on record in 2017, and Lloyd's "After the Storms" report looked back at last year's catastrophic events to understand what could be learnt. Fitch said US P&C insurers were well positioned for a likely average hurricane season, and the Swiss Re 2018 SONAR report examined emerging risks the re/insurance industry and society are facing.
PwC research indicated that Drone technology has the potential to increase UK GDP by £42bn(2%) by 2030, whilst NTT DATA UK reported on its survey across both insurers and consumers around online customer experience. InsurTechs continued in the spotlight with Wrisk hitting its crowdfunding target of £500,000 in just 2 days on Seedrs, and Indian startup Acko announcing a new $12m round of investment led by Amazon. Marine hull insurance blockchain platform Insurwave is now live.
SCOR became the first reinsurer to use the new UK ILS regime to issue a cat bond, and Swiss Re and SoftBank ended discussions on a potential minority investment but will explore business ideas. Allianz announced it is to acquire 8% of Africa Re. AXIS Re revealed a series of actions to increase client satisfaction and drive profitable growth, and QBE received regulatory approval for its new Belgian subsidiary QBE Europe. UK P&I Club reported a good year, and there was a senior appointment at Hamilton Insurance Group.
Aviva reported a 5.4% increase in the value of fraud detected in the UK in 2017-around one out of eight whiplash claims were suspect or fraudulent. Assurant announced the closing of its acquisition of The Warranty Group, ANZ Bank New Zealand is to sell OnePath Life NZ to Cigna, and Standard Life Aberdeen shareholders are due for a windfall and share buy back after its life business sale to Phoenix.
Full articles on the above topics are included in those added to the Insurance Newslink and Financial Newslink Global Trends Database Resource this week at www.onlystrategic.com featuring advanced self-search and reporting, and a free full 14 day access trial.