Analysis

Mini-budgets are all too often conceived in haste with much fumbling in dark corners...

APRA’s announcement late last week that it’s happy with the way Australia’s insurance industry has withstood the rigours of the global financial crisis is welcome news...

Willis Chairman and CEO Joe Plumeri last week hailed moves by New York’s insurance regulators to force insurers to provide policyholders with contract certainty...

The global credit crisis is dominating the industry’s attention at present, but lurking in the background is an issue that isn’t going to go away: climate change...

With world financial markets apparently racing downhill at a record pace, the latest outlook for international insurers from Standard & Poor's provides a timely reality check for the insurance industry...

It's not just the share market that is in freefall - currency traders are also shaking their heads at the sudden and extreme drop in the Australian dollar...

As Australian insurers, investors and policyholders grapple with what AIG’s near downfall means to them, the question of whether it could benefit the local market has now been raised...

Bloodied but unbowed: that’s the short version of the Reserve Bank’s review of the local general insurance industry...

AIG’s Australian CEO Chris Townsend is manning the phones talking to key stakeholders about the company’s excellent liquidity locally...

The unkind among us would suggest there’s plenty of evidence that governments and public servants tend to overshoot when it comes to controlling and monitoring the behaviour of business...

Consumer law groups say the Insurance Council of Australia’s failed bid to introduce a common flood definition shows it needs to “enter the 21st century” by properly engaging with the community...

An insurance claim over the closure of Tasmania’s Beaconsfield gold mine that has dragged through the courts for more than a year has so far shown courts’ willingness to defend the strict wording of policies...

ANZIIF CEO Joan Fitzpatrick spoke last week of the need for uniform global insurance standards administered by a single international institute...

It’s 10 years since the Wollongong floods exposed the insurance industry’s mixed attitude to dealing with flood cover and the conflicts that inevitably follow...

The legal industry has been following the progress of a professional indemnity claim that CGU has fought through several courts over the past few years until – as reported last week in insuranceNEWS.com.au – winning its case in the High Court...

Last week’s AILA seminar in Melbourne titled The Flood Dilemma – Where are we going? could lead cynics to suggest the only direction at present is in circles...

A new report by actuaries Finity Consulting and Deutsche Bank is the latest sign that the pressure is increasing for premiums to rise at a faster rate...

NIBA’s six-monthly policy renewal survey confirms what the industry has been saying unofficially – the insurance cycle is turning...

The industry’s latest attempt to bring some clarity to the difficult issue of universal flood insurance has gained plenty of attention, much of it for the wrong reason...

Australia’s listed insurers will be glad to see the back of the 2007/08 financial year...