Risk & Insurance Online

FLU VIRUS TO COST $54.4B

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The Insurance Information Institute has released a study forecasting the potential life-insurance losses of a flu pandemic. In a severe pandemic, group life insurers would pay out $54.4 billion in claims, the report said. Insurers could pay out an additional $78.7 billion for individual life policies. Avian flu could reach pandemic proportions if human-to-human transmission of the virus becomes possible.

FRENCH FIRMS BEHAVING

The financial services regulatory agency in France, the Autorite des Marches Financiers, has announced that French listed companies significantly cleaned up their behavior in 2005. French companies have had to produce a report on their internal controls since August 2003. An AMF survey of 108 businesses showed that the quality of these reports has improved. It also found that two-thirds of surveyed businesses provided adequate outlines of their board goals, compared to 40 percent in 2004.

PRICE OF P/C CAT

The Property Claim Services unit of Insurance Service Office Inc. has announced its figure for the estimated payout for the property/casualty industry for catastrophes in 2005. The insured losses total $56.8 billion, more than double what had been a record figure in 2004. PCS included 24 catastrophes to tally the 2005 losses. Five of those events were hurricanes that caused 93 percent of the total losses, or $52.7 billion.

RE HAS MORE RISK

The Group of Thirty has released a study on the role of reinsurance in the international capital markets. "Reinsurance and International Financial Markets," highlights how activities in the financial services industry overlap, resulting in reinsurance companies playing an increasing role in the overall distribution of risk. The Group of Thirty is a nonprofit, nonpolitical organization that studies business practices, public policy and systemic risk in the international financial system.

COASTAL CONUNDRUM

According to the fourth-quarter market survey from the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, coastal commercial property is becoming much more expensive to cover against wind and flood, while the overall P/C market has little price increases due to the 2005 hurricane season. The survey found that 65 percent of small accounts and 60 percent of medium-sized accounts up for renewal during the quarter had premiums that remained flat or dropped as much as 10 percent.

ALLSTATE OUT OF N.Y.

The largest homeowners insurer in New York state, Allstate Corp., has announced it will no longer write new homeowners policies, effective Jan. 1, in the eight counties in New York City, southern Westchester County and Long Island. The insurance giant is limiting its coastal exposure after experiencing a third-quarter net loss of $1.55 billion, largely because of Hurricane Katrina and other 2005 storms. The move does not affect current policyholders, or Allstate's co-op, automobile, condominium and life insurance in coastal New York.

--Compiled by staff from news and wire report.

March 1, 2007

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