ldoherty

“The transactional risk practice has continued to experience significant growth in the last few years,” Batalla said. “… Our deep technical knowledge, consistent underwriting approach, and unwavering work ethic enable the team to review thousands of transactions every year providing superior service to our clients and carrier trading partners.”

Most recently hired to Ryan Specialty Transactional Risks International is Rafael Giménez-Reyna. Based in Madrid, he joins the firm’s international tax team from private practice, where has spent the last 10 years advising clients on Spanish and global tax matters.

“Rafa will be working on international tax risks, but as Spain is currently a busy jurisdiction for tax insurance, it will be extremely beneficial having someone on the ground in Madrid,” said Kerry Westwell, head of tax for Ryan Specialty Transactional Risks Europe.

As stated in Article 83(1) of the GPDR, the turnover of the undertaking is a relevant element to be considered when imposing an effective, dissuasive and proportionate fine. However, according to the EDPB’s guidelines, when calculating the turnover of an insurance company, the supervisory authority should also take into account insurance premiums.

“This is not in line with the most recent accounting standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB),” Insurance Europe said. “For example, IFRS 17 – Insurance Contracts, states that the information on insurance revenue must not include amounts the insurer is obligated to pay the policyholder regardless of whether the insured event occurs, or the so-called investment component. These amounts that represent the investment of the policyholder (such as the savings component of an endowment life insurance) must be excluded from the revenues in the profit and loss account.”

According to Insurance Europe, the IASB, acting as a global standard-setter for accounting, ensured the comparability of financial reporting by insurers and companies from other industries.

“Insurance Europe, therefore, encourages the EDPB to update its guidelines to take into account the international standards set out by the IASB,” it said.

With over 20 years of experience in strategy and technology innovation in financial services, Kaul-Green joins from AXA XL, where she was chief of staff, Asia-Pacific and Europe, responsible for developing the corporate strategy, ESG governance and strategic communication.

“I’m delighted to welcome Parul to Liberty,” Hobbs said. “She brings a broad track-record in strategic and digital transformation. This is the skillset we need to deliver on our strategic objectives.”

Baker (pictured directly above), meanwhile, is responsible for developing LSM’s digital strategy for the region. She was previously head of customer proposition, a role she held since 2019. Prior to joining LSM, Baker ran an independent consulting company that worked with carriers in the insurance sector, including LSM.

“Carol has championed digital innovation within our business development team, and we look forward to her continuing to bring this value to our brokers and clients in her new role,” Hobbs said.

Upstream: Both offshore and onshore energy clients are starting to use carbon capture and storage in markets across the globe as an alternative to conventional decommission. Carbon capture and storage is also being used as a means of generating extra revenue and tax credits, where applicable.

Downstream: The sector may be approaching the end of a hard market cycle for downstream risks, which will benefit insureds with good loss records that can show effective management of natural catastrophe exposures.

Renewable energy: The renewable energy market is now more stable and profitable, the report found. However, certain trends will need to be monitored, including the effect of unpredictable global weather patterns on projects in locations with high exposure to natural catastrophes, underwriter uncertainty over some new technologies, and supply chain disruption.

Cyber: Insurers have been hiking their rates by as much as 25% to 40% in response to a recent spike in ransomware attacks.

The sector has also seen continued disruption linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of the Ukraine conflict has reached well beyond Eastern Europe, the report found.

Global insurance resilience also improved last year thanks to strong insurance growth driven by rising risk awareness among customers and pandemic-related health spending by governments. However, insurance resilience has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic or pre-Global Financial Crisis levels.

The world insurance protection gap for health, mortality and natural catastrophe risks combined hit a new high of US$1.42 trillion in 2021, and the current inflationary environment is expected to widen that gap even further this year, Swiss Re Institute reported. Despite a strong forecast for nominal insurance premium growth, insurance resilience is expected to weaken this year due to scaled-back government benefits and declining asset values.

“The cyclical recovery in both macroeconomic and insurance resilience in 2021 cannot hide the fact that deep structural reforms are needed to drive long-term growth,” said Jérôme Haegeli, group chief economist for Swiss Re. “The current inflation shock and cost-of-living crisis are disproportionately affecting the lowest-income households and will only widen protection gaps this year.

“To secure greater resilience and support long-term economic stability, structural parameters such as infrastructure and human capital need to be strengthened and inequality reduced. Against this challenging backdrop, the insurance industry plays an important role in shifting financial risks away from individuals and ultimately increasing their resilience.”

“I am truly delighted that Paul has been appointed CEO by the board. When we launched Convex in 2019, the plan was that Paul would become CEO in due course and his appointment has been fully endorsed by our shareholders,” Caitlin said. “He has led the team which has built Convex into a superb business with a strong competitive advantage and hard to replicate intellectual property. This promotion is very well deserved.”

Brand has four decades of experience in insurance, serving as the chief underwriting officer for almost half of his 31 years at Caitlin and XL Caitlin. From 2016 to 2018, he was also the chairman at Accelerate, XL Caitlin’s in-house innovation team. It was from this point onwards when he began to work with Caitlin on Convex.

Established in 2019, Convex Group is an international specialty insurer and reinsurer focused on complex specialty risks across a diverse range of business lines. It is operated out of London, Bermuda, Luxembourg and New Jersey.

“Paul and Stephen have demonstrated an incredible ability to build a quality insurance group. The result, Convex, is a tremendous achievement and we expect the business will thrive under Paul’s leadership whilst benefitting from Stephen and Paul’s continuing partnership,” said Bobby Le Blanc, president of Onex Partners. “We fully expect that they will deliver value to shareholders over time and Onex Partners thoroughly endorses the board’s decision.”

The consultation, which ran from April 1 to June 26, gathered the opinions of various stakeholders on loopholes in EU tax regulations and how to fix them. One of the EC’ aims is to avoid double taxation, which makes the EU market a less attractive investment destination.

“Insurance Europe takes the view that substance requirements should be harmonised, and that the Parent-Subsidiary Directive and the Interest and Royalties Directive should be clarified to ensure legal certainty regarding securities and intra-group payments,” the group said. “Taxpayers and tax authorities require legal certainty as to whether withholding tax benefits that a source state limits to its own resident taxpayers are extended to foreign taxpayers, to avoid discriminatory practices which are against the principle of free movement of capital.”

After receiving nominations for DEI initiatives, the team reached out to the nominated companies’ employees to gauge the effectiveness of these programs. The companies that scored 4 or higher on a scale of 1 to 5 won the 5-star DEI 2022 awards.

This year’s winners are:

Crawford & Company

FloodFlash

HDI Global SE

Talbot Jones

Zurich

Congratulations to all the winners! Find out about the companies’ DEI initiatives by reading the IBUK 5-Star Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 2022 report.