Insurance news

AXIS Capital Holdings has announced its financial results for the third quarter. The company reported net income available to common shareholders of $47 million (approx. £34.12 million), or $0.56 per diluted common share. That’s compared to a net loss of $73 million, or $0.87 per diluted common share, for the third quarter of 2020.

Net income available to common shareholders for the nine months ended Sept. 30 was $391 million, or $4.59 per diluted common share, compared to a net loss of $146 million, or $1.73 per diluted common share, for the same period last year.

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The ‘Forum’, Fidelis Insurance Holdings Limited’s (Fidelis) new state-of-the-art trading floor, is now open at 37-39 Lime Street in London.

“The opening of our new trading floor highlights our absolute commitment to providing the face-to-face service and decision-making that our brokers and clients demand and deserve,” said Richard Coulson, the group’s insurance chief executive and Fidelis Underwriting Limited chief underwriting officer.

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In a statement, the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) said it welcomed “the fact that [the chancellor] is leaving the rate of the IPT untouched.”

“This is some comfort to insurance customers already facing premium increases for a variety of external reasons,” the association said. “However, tax remains a significant proportion of the cost of being responsible and we hope future spending reviews will recognise the road safety benefits of greater use of telematics-based policies by removing premium tax on these to increase their uptake.”

BIBA added that removing or reducing IPT on cyber insurance policies would help “improve uptake and broaden resilience,” given that only 6% of UK businesses have a specific cyber insurance policy in place, citing the government’s latest cyber security breaches survey.

The Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries (AMII) also expressed relief that Sunak did not raise the IPT rate but pledged that the group would continue to lobby for lower-rated healthcare products.

“We will continue to lobby hard that healthcare costs should be zero-rated for IPT purposes in line with other protection and general products, as they make an equally valuable contribution to the health of the nation and the UK economy,” said Dave Middleton, executive chairman of AMII.

Read more: What did Budget 2020 bring for the insurance industry?

Here is a summary of some of the key points in Sunak’s speech and what key insurance industry players are saying:

Taxation and universal credit

Sunak announced that the universal credit taper rate would be slashed from 63% to 55% no later than December 01, allowing claimants to keep more of the payment. The government would also increase work allowances in universal credit for low-income households by £500 a year.

Group Risk Development (GRiD), the industry body for the group risk sector, welcomed this development, saying this meant “not only that ‘work pays’ but also that group income protection pays for those whose employers provide a continued income in the event that they’re unable to work for a prolonged period through illness, injury, or disability.”

Housing

The government has earmarked £24 billion for housing, including £11.5 billion for up to 180,000 affordable homes, with brownfield sites targeted for development. A 4% levy will also be placed on property developers with profits over £25 million to help create a £5 billion fund to remove unsafe cladding.

“We welcome the government’s multi-year housing settlement, including its commitment to building new homes by regenerating brownfield sites across the UK,” said Claudio Gienal, chief executive officer of AXA UK and Ireland. “As we enter a new and exciting phase of building, which will include more focus on sustainability and greater use of modern methods of construction, it is imperative that the planning system and building regulations are redesigned to place safety and resilience of UK housing front and centre.”

Gienal added that failure to do so “risks repeating the mistakes of the post-war era.”

“[These include] building homes and infrastructure unfit for future generations, which must be pulled down or adapted decades later,” he said. “[Regulations] should include putting in place a legal duty for all developers to consider the insurability of buildings at all stages of the planning process.”

Read more: Threat of shouldering cladding costs haunts residents after Grenfell

Public services recovery

The government plans to spend more than £8 billion for a major catch-up programme that will help the National Health Service (NHS) provide elective care that was delayed due to the pandemic. This will be supported by a £5.9 billion capital investment, allowing the NHS to tackle the backlog of non-emergency procedures and modernise digital technology.

Middleton said he was delighted to see the chancellor “injecting much-needed resources into tackling record-breaking NHS waiting lists” but admitted more could have been done to incentivise the NHS and private healthcare sector.

“The measures he has announced are unlikely to solve the unprecedented issues facing the health service and, while subsidised private health insurance would, without doubt, reduce the burden on the NHS, it is a real shame that there seems to be no appetite within government to consider this,” he said.

Flood maintenance

To reduce the likelihood and impact of flooding, the government has reaffirmed doubling

of investments in the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) programme. The £5.2 billion investment is meant to better protect 336,000 properties across England from flooding. The government will also invest an additional £27 million to support flooding incident and emergency response activities and an additional £22 million each year for the maintenance of flood defences.

“We were delighted to see that government is committed to an additional £22 million each year for the maintenance of flood defences,” BIBA said. “We were also pleased to see that government is commissioning a new National Infrastructure Commission study, on the effective management of surface water flooding in England which will also consider the role of a range of interventions, including both traditional built infrastructure and nature-based solutions. We hope to work closely with government to help introduce more general and property specific resilience measures.”

Read more: Flood Re submits plan to reshape the flood insurance market

Skills

The government plans to raise government spending on skills and training by 42%, or around £3.8 billion. Sunak also confirmed the future launch of a UK-wide numeracy programme that will help 500,000 adults improve their numeracy skills.

“We welcome the government’s commitment to skills provisions and education funding as part of levelling-up opportunities across the country,” Genial said. “However, the government must go further and faster in identifying and solving the specific skills shortages the UK faces.

“Achieving the government’s objectives on key policy areas such as net-zero, housing, and the future of transport relies on rapidly developing a versatile workforce with the right skills. The government should create and implement comprehensive skills strategies in each of these areas to ensure there is the expert capacity necessary to deliver real progress in the years ahead.”

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The CII said its mean gender pay gap is now 14.81%, compared to 16.25% in 2020, while the mean gender pay pension gap is now 7.35%, compared to 17.37% in 2020. Its mean ethnicity gap is 25.43% in 2021, which is also the first year this figure was reported externally.

According to the CII, in the past four years, it re-evaluated roles to address any historic anomalies towards part-time workers, expanded the number of roles suitable for part-time and/or job sharing, adopted “anytime, anywhere” working, trained managers to recognise and overcome unconscious biases and committed to the Insuring Women’s Futures Financial Flexible Working and Inclusive Customer Financial Lives pledges.

Both employer and employee contributions were used in computing the gender pension gaps. More male (35%) than female (33%) employees make personal contributions to their pensions, but the proportion of females making a personal contribution has increased by 5% since 2020.

“The CII is committed to being diverse and inclusive, plus reducing the gender pay, pension gap and ethnicity pay gap,” said Sian Fisher, CII chief executive. “It is vital we continue to improve our understanding of the nature of the pay gaps and master the tools that can help us take the necessary steps to tackle the pay, pension, wealth and opportunity gaps that exist between the genders and different ethnic groups. I am proud of the steps we continue to take to tackle gender and ethnicity pay issues and particularly the improvements made. We continue to work on reducing the gender pay, pension and ethnicity pay gap and recognise the challenge of making further improvements next year.”

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Sutherland said that the company must change in how it perceives older generations, preferring to label them as “experienced,” rather than just “old.”

He also noted the importance of tapping into this age group, especially the retirees who have saved the most as the pandemic shut down the economy.

Read more: Saga Group reveals new CEO

Sutherland also addressed the pandemic’s impact to the company, which has left its cruise ships unable to operate but needing to be continually serviced.

“These ships are like aircraft – they’re not meant to stop,” he told The Independent. “They’re meant to pose for the day and move on. So, we had to keep them functioning, including things like getting barnacles taken off the boat.”

Read more: Saga to suspend cruise operation amid coronavirus fears

Since restrictions have eased, however, the news outlet reported that cruise ships’ bookings have recovered, with 70% of those whose travels were cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak retaining their bookings.

But Sutherland said there were concerns from customers that the cruise industry is still weak.

“I think there’s a perception issue potentially from non-cruisers, but from cruise guests there’s no problem, so there’s a real polarisation,” he told The Independent, adding that those who are booking are taking longer and more exotic trips and spending more money.

Sutherland also said that staycations, which gained popularity during the pandemic, would be unlikely to sustain demand as people are keen on leaving the country.

“I don’t see that the staycation is going to be a major thing,” he said. “The feedback from our customers is that they can’t wait to get away.”

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The Reinsurance Advisory Board (RAB) of Insurance Europe has announced the appointment of Denis Kessler as its chair.

Kessler is the current chairman and chief executive officer of French reinsurance firm SCOR – positions he assumed in 2002 – and had previously held the position of chair of RAB from 2009 to 2010. He takes over the position from Swiss Re CEO Christian Mumenthaler, who had held it for the last two and a half years.

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Since 2017, the (re)insurance market has suffered more than US$10 billion in weather-related losses, with the number of weather catastrophes (12) more than double anything seen in previous five-year periods.

Wildfire is a peril that has seen some of the most significant development. Global insured losses from wildfires spiked an alarming 500% between 2010-2019 — the first two years of which already doubled that of the previous decade.

“The pace of change over a relatively short timeframe is starting to move the (re)insurance market. The significant shift in loss experience is forcing insurers and reinsurers to reassess their views of risk,” the statement read. “Howden’s research indicates that those expecting a return to the loss amounts of yesteryear are likely to be disappointed: the past is no longer a guide to the future for climate-sensitive perils.”

The report reinforces the link between extreme weather events and higher insured catastrophe losses, which calls for a heightened need for insurance. However, accessibility is an ongoing problem for many.

Emerging markets with lower insurance penetration rates and higher risk of GDP decline are on the receiving end of the worst climate aftermaths.

The report compares two markets: New Zealand was able to recover in 18 months after a series of earthquakes in 2010, but Mozambique failed to return to its pre-flood GDP trajectory after it experienced severe flooding in 2000.

David Howden, chief executive officer of Howden Group, emphasized the importance of rebuilding insurance models for a more balanced response to climate change that is inclusive of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

“The power of insurance both in removing barriers to the transition to a lower-carbon future, and in picking up the pieces when disaster strikes is immense,” Howden said. “However, we cannot continue with a model that only protects those who can afford it.”

To make matters worse, the humanitarian funding gap is on the rise from less than $1 billion two decades ago, to $4 billion a decade ago, to over $20 billion at present.

“Traditional methods of disaster relief funding cannot keep pace with demand, and existing risk transfer products cannot close the protection gap,” said Charlie Langdale, head of climate risk and resilience at Howden. “The magnitude of the issue requires something far more imaginative and innovative, something that resets how disaster relief is funded, with insurance at its core.”

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Read more: Ranking how the UK’s top 50 insurance brands are tackling digital marketing opportunities

“The environment has changed, in the sense that big tech companies have changed the game, they’re digital, they deliver faster, they understand the need for a seamless experience and to understand customer data. They have disrupted what we do,” she said. “Then on the other side, insurtechs are also disrupting what we do because they have the digitally native [foundation needed] to be faster, more seamless and more engaging than us.

“Of course, they may not be as big or as dominant as we are, but we should still remember the history of the disruptors that came into other industries and changed the game, such as Netflix or eBay… What we need to do is realise what is happening around us and not think that we’re different because we’re insurers. We’re not different. And customer expectations are going up because other companies are setting new standards.”

That’s why Zurich is taking on the task of actually listening to its customers through the work of Kalcher and her team, as the company wants to move with those changing standards and apply them to insurance so that customers aren’t disappointed. A variety of projects and initiatives have been developed to encourage greater customer engagement, she said, each of which moves beyond the traditional message of marketing – which essentially is to push out the same message to everyone.

Instead, it’s about exploring a new way of communicating with customers that is reflective of what they want to see, not what the company has to offer. It’s not about pushing a message out to them, but rather getting to know them so that a long-standing, productive relationship can be built through mutual understanding. It’s about making every interaction, and every point of dialogue and contact count – something that is notoriously difficult in insurance as traditionally there have been so few opportunities for interaction.

“As we build out our company and our offering to also encompass services and prevention activities, there will be more touchpoints for us,” she said. “So, what we’re doing is redefining how we engage with customers. We have redefined who we are as a brand and what we stand for. We have a stronger brand purpose today which is to ‘create a brighter future together’. That’s together with our customers – we’re not sitting on a pedestal, with the company over here and the customer over there. We are actually in this together.”

Zurich wants to change the broader conversation about insurance, Kalcher said. Insurance is typically seen as a “doom and gloom” industry where conversations centre on what could or has gone wrong, but as pinpointed by its new branding motif, the company is looking to turn that around and start promoting the ability of insurance companies to create positive changes to the world around them. And actionable positivity is at the core of this message.

Read more: Zurich introduces low-carbon investment fund

This is a step being taken across the Zurich business collectively, she said, as epitomised by the actions being led by group CEO Mario Greco to proactively address systemic risks such as climate change and cyber security. The insurer has also defined and launched a new set of customer experience standards internally that will soon start to filter down to customers. Zurich will be launching a mass engagement campaign at COP26 to outline the accumulative actions that everybody can take to preserve the planet and halt climate change.

A core component of Zurich’s branding evolution has been exploring the right channels via which to share its revitalised brand purpose, Kalcher said, and its message has to be communicated in a way that’s relatable for everyone. Upgrading a visual identity for the digital age has meant embracing more animation, more interactivity and more adaptability so that people can engage via their device of choice.

Read more: Zurich ties up with UNICEF to promote mental well-being

“Our new visual identity is exemplified by the statue, [as seen above],” she said. “This statue is formed of carbon-neutral material that depicts nondescript climate heroes. The idea is that you can step into the circle of people, join it and make your pledge. So, it’s really about what we all can do, what small actions we can take to support a better life for future generations and protect the planet together. It’s not about pushing a product – it’s about engaging customers in a discussion that’s interesting, and timely, and relevant to them.”

To successfully move the dial and change the conversation around a brand, you have to be really sure what that brand stands for, Kalcher said. If you want to blend in with the rest, you’re not really a brand. So, it’s about exploring what is unique to your value proposition, where you stand out in the marketplace and how you can build on that.

“You have to be able to say, ‘this is who we are and this is why we should be your choice’,” she said. “There’s still a long way to go but, as I’ve said many times, I really would like us to be the Patagonia of insurance. I would like us to be the one that you are choosing if you’re really focused on creating a brighter future, because Zurich stands for something and is working for that agenda on a daily basis.”

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FM Global has announced two senior-level moves, with Philip Johnson (pictured above) promoted to the newly created role of chief learning officer and Christopher Dempsey succeeding Johnson as senior vice president and EMEA division manager.

Johnson, who has been with FM Global for 25 years, will lead the development of the FM Global Academy, the company’s learning arm that provides in-person and on-demand programmes to meet the business and development needs of its employees and clients. He is based in London.

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PIB Group has acquired the Spain-based independent specialist insurance intermediary Cicor Internacional Correduria de Seguros y Reaseguros, as well as Cicor’s subsidiary Global Marine.

The acquisition is pending customary Spanish regulatory approvals.

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