Swiss Re News

Litigation Funding Bills Crop Up in State Houses Across the Country

Lawmakers in three states and in Congress have introduced bills to impose more controls on litigation funding companies, which insurers contend are one of the factors leading to an increase in “nuclear verdicts” that have pushed up claims costs and …

Typhoon-Lashed Philippines Taps Catastrophe Bonds

The Philippines, among the world’s most disaster-prone nations, sold its maiden foreign-currency catastrophe-linked bonds to help cover costs of major calamities, in conjunction with the World Bank. The dual-tranche transaction consists of a $150 million issuance against losses from, , …

Fire and Hail Push Insurers to Rethink Climate Change Risks

LONDON — By the time David Kaisel got back from selling his flour at a farmers’ market, a wildfire in California’s Capay Valley had burnt both his tractor and the shipping container where he kept some tools. His insurer is …

Brokers Packaging Cybersecurity with Cyber Insurance

Insurance retailers are teaming up with tech wizards to sell cybersecurity along with cyber coverage as a means of trimming premiums and winning over customers in a vastly underserved market: small and mid-sized businesses. Coalition, a San Francisco managing general …

Ethiopian Airlines, MAX Claims Put Pressure on Swiss Re Profits

FRANKFURT — Swiss Re’s first-half net profit fell 5.3%, as claims relating to the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the subsequent grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, plus natural catastrophes took their toll. The world’s second-largest reinsurance company highlighted claims from …

Boeing Crashes Leave $450 Million Bill for European Insurers

Europe’s biggest insurers are on the hook for as much as $450 million from a pair of airline crashes involving Boeing Co. 737 Max planes. Munich Re reckons it could pay 150 million euros ($168 million), an estimate that Chief …

Insurers Expect France to Bear Notre-Dame Rebuilding Cost

Major European insurers expect France to bear the bulk of the cost of rebuilding the Notre-Dame Cathedral after a fire tore through the eight-centuries-old Paris landmark on Monday. The cost of a likely multi-year restoration project could itself take a …

NOAA Data Shows Weather Disasters Relatively Mild So Far this Year

It’s only April, and already the United States has experienced two climate disasters that each caused $1 billion in damages and together killed five people, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported this week. NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information …

Ethiopian Crash Could be Largest Non-War Aviation Reinsurance Claim: Willis Re

LONDON — Liability claims related to the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft could be the largest non-war aviation reinsurance claim on record, hitting reinsurers’ profitability, reinsurance broker Willis Re said. The crash of …

Swiss Re: Natural Catastrophe Insured Losses Nearly Doubled in 2017

Preliminary sigma estimates for insured global losses resulting from natural and man-made disasters in 2017 are around $136 billion, well-above the annual average of the previous 10 years, and the third highest since sigma records began in 1970. Total economic …