Articles by Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

California Plans to Rev up Sales of Electric Motorcycles in Nationwide First

At New Century Motorcycles in Alhambra, a handful of electric motorcycles are relegated to the back of the store, tucked behind the dirt bikes. The store sells one a month, at most, a salesperson said. Motorcyclists have long loved their …

Survey Finds Consumers See Link Between Attorney-Repped Claims and Higher Auto Insurance Costs

Drive along any stretch of highway and you’ll see widespread advertising by billboard attorneys encouraging consumers to hire a lawyer to settle an auto accident claim. But this leads to higher costs of auto insurance across the U.S., according to …

Insurance Industry Races to Stay Ahead of Cyber Threat Actors

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on significant change to the cyber insurance industry that spans all disciplines. We experienced the widespread remote work environment, which introduced an onslaught of ransomware claims by threat actor groups as they recognized the opportunity to …

Sprout.ai Adds Thompson to Growth Advisory Board

Sprout.ai named Ian Thompson as the first member of its growth advisory board. Thompson, who has 20 years of senior leadership experience and 30 years of insurance business experience, most recently oversaw 8,500 employees at Zurich as the group chief …

Jury Asked to Award More Than $6B in Preterm Formula Case Against Abbott, Reckitt’s

A lawyer for a Missouri mother on Wednesday asked a jury to make Abbott and Reckitt’s Mead Johnson pay a total of more than $6 billion in the latest trial over claims that the companies’ formulas for premature babies caused …

JPMorgan Sues Customers Over Check Fraud Linked to Glitch That Went Viral

JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank, has begun suing customers for check fraud, saying they improperly withdrew funds by taking illegal advantage of a temporary technical glitch that went viral on TikTok. The glitch in late August let customers deposit …

Taiwan Suspends Stock Trading Due to Super Typhoon Kong-Rey

Taiwan will suspend trading on its $2.5 trillion stock exchange Thursday as a powerful typhoon barrels toward the archipelago. Super Typhoon Kong-Rey has intensified as it skirts the Philippines and tracks toward Taiwan, where it’s expected to make landfall on …

New Gallagher Re-Bitsight Report Identifies Cyber Footprint as Claims Driver

A new report from Gallagher Re found that cyber insurers could reduce loss ratios up to 16% by removing most-at-risk entities. Using independent analysis of cybersecurity performance data provided by Bitsight in combination with claims data, the study uses a …

Program Uses AI to Send Cash Payments to 1,000 Households Hit by Hurricanes

Nearly 1,000 hurricane-impacted households in North Carolina and Florida will benefit this week from a new disaster aid program that employs a model not commonly used by philanthropy in the United States: Giving people rapid, direct cash payments. The nonprofit …

Autonomous Tech Is Coming to Farming. What Will It Mean for Crops And Workers Who Harvest Them?

Jeremy Ford hates wasting water. As a mist of rain sprinkled the fields around him in Homestead, Florida, Ford bemoaned how expensive it had been running a fossil fuel-powered irrigation system on his five-acre farm — and how bad it …