Analysis

Most Australian general insurers are making a profit despite a string of natural disasters, but some clocked up spectacular losses during the 2011 financial year…

The Chinese insurance market is continuing to be a tough challenge for foreign insurers, with banks entering the market and domestic competitors getting favourable treatment from regulators…

There is a new world on the horizon for brokers…

Comparator sites in the UK are now wielding significant power, especially in motor insurance…

The report of the Natural Disaster Insurance Review, which was released to the public last week, lays out a clear structure for a national flood insurance system…

Reinsurance has served disaster-affected communities well this year, but there was always going to be a price to pay and it is being reflected in the reinsurers’ results for the September quarter…

At first glance, New Zealand’s second-largest home and contents insurer AMI should be attractive to another insurer wanting to buy a customer base of 485,000 clients and about a third…

In the same week that insurers were slammed by a major consumer group over their handling of claims related to this year’s natural disasters, Suncorp has released a report quantifying…

Money has triumphed over fear in the New Zealand reinsurance market. Higher reinsurance rates are attracting reinsurers who have not normally operated in the market, offsetting fears…

How financial advisers are paid has been the headline act of the Future of Financial Advice legislation, but another issue has much wider implications…

When insurers fail to meet public expectations there are inevitably calls for state intervention, and this year’s catastrophes have revived calls for governments to step into the insurance market…

The latest components of the Future of Financial Advice draft bill contain no significant surprises…

The Insurance Council of Australia’s announcement that it is working on a rebuild of “brand insurance” is very welcome…

The industry will benefit from improved economic conditions in coming months, says KPMG in its annual General Insurance Industry Survey…

Reinsurers have taken a battering this year but the outlook for the sector is positive, according to reports by ratings agencies…

Ever since the Wallis Report of the 1990s which led to the Financial Services Reform Act 2001, general insurance brokers have blamed their financial planning counterparts for bringing down on their…

As the anniversary of the first Christchurch earthquake approaches, the ground is still shaking and there is no end in sight to the embargo on writing new business in the Canterbury area…

Insurance and reinsurance CEOs tend not to speculate about the future direction of rates without mentioning the US hurricane season…

US insurance regulators and company executives have rushed into damage control mode following Standard & Poor’s downgrade of US Federal Government debt, reassuring consumers and markets…

The industry’s ongoing battle with insurance fraudsters continues, with the Insurance Fraud Hotline saving the industry $700,000 in its first six months…