Inside FAC September 2019

As I write this, late on Sunday 1 September, Hurricane Dorian is poised to hit the Bahamas, bringing the threat of storm surge to a region particularly vulnerable to the peril...

The likely loss of the ChinaSat 18 communications satellite after deployment into orbit is expected to be a $250mn loss to the global space market...

Property (re)insurers are anticipating a loss in the region of $250mn-$300mn following a fire at a Tyson Foods slaughterhouse in Kansas, which caused the shutdown of the facility.

Swiss Re has indicated that it will make greater use of third-party reinsurance in future, including facultative, as it seeks to turn around its Corporate Solutions (CorSo) division.

An IT system failure which affected more than 500 British Airways (BA) flights in August could burn through the lower layers of the airline’s cyber insurance programme, it is understood.

A fire which is reported to have broken out in the Nakilat Damen Shipyards in Qatar is believed to have destroyed three super yachts with an estimated value of between $60mn and $100mn.

The global cyber market could be on the hook for a record $400mn loss after the personal details of around 106 million Capital One customers were stolen in a hacking incident discovered in July.

Boeing’s liability insurers are expecting losses from last year’s Lion Air disaster to cost in the region of $330mn, it is understood.

AIR Worldwide has estimated insured losses from Typhoon Lekima in excess of 6bn yuan ($854mn), after the windstorm struck China’s east coast, about 200 miles south of Shanghai.

Insured losses were down $7bn for the first half of 2019 at $19bn, a decrease of around 27 percent on the same period last year, according to Swiss Re Institute’s preliminary sigma estimate.

Facultative gross written premium (GWP) has reached “an all-time high” at Everest Re, according to the firm’s reinsurance head...

AIG’s re-underwriting of its general insurance business has continued with the news of major cutbacks at excess and surplus lines business Lexington.

Aon has rolled out a global accident, health and life practice in its Reinsurance Solutions business, to be chaired by Roger Smith.

Premier League injury costs hit an all-time high last season, according to Marsh-JLT Specialty, spelling opportunity for the A&H market

It’s barely six months since the news of Aon’s proposed acquisition of Willis Towers Watson surfaced, and yet talk of another bid in the near future has persisted.

Markel- and Nephila-backed MGA Volante has rapidly grown its stable of underwriting platforms, but is now bedding down into ‘safe and silent’ mode, says founder Talbir Bains

So-called ‘casino underwriting’ in the Caribbean took a double hit in 2017 when hurricanes Irma and Maria smashed into Puerto Rico just two weeks apart, writes David Benyon

Helen Yates says a clampdown on ‘silent cyber’ spells opportunity for D&F writers – assuming adequate facultative reinsurance capacity can be found

Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM) has promoted Nicholas Garside to the role of head of Bermuda property, with effect from 1 September.

In a case first filed in December last year, US confectionery firm The Hershey Company is battling a suit brought against it by a customer who appears overly fond of one of its products.