All Posts in "Day: February 24, 2021"

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AIG recorded 15 percent commercial rate increases in the fourth quarter of last year and believes market hardening will continue through 2021.

Announcing fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 results, Peter Zaffino, AIG’s president and chief operating officer, said the insurer’s general insurance business continued to see “considerable” rate increases and tighter terms and conditions in the fourth quarter.

He added that commercial saw “strong” rates momentum of about 15 percent and improvement across all lines expect workers compensation, according to results service  Seeking Alpha.

International commercial rates were up 14 percent in Q4 and accelerated in the second half of last year, explained Mr Zaffino, who will be taking over as AIG’s CEO from Brian Duperreault on 1 March.

North America commercial rate increases were 21 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to 14 percent in the prior-year period, explained Mr Zaffino. He said this improvement was driven by excess casualty that saw rates increase of 45% and financial lines that were up over 25 percent, led by a 35 percent rise in D&O. North American retail property and Lexington wholesale property both saw rates increase by about 30 percent and Lexington casualty business was up 25 percent

Mr Zaffino expects the commercial market hardening to continue in 2021.

“We expect to see these rate increases be above loss costs. We expect that these rate increases will be balanced across our global portfolio and across multiple lines of business,” he said.

He added that AIG is going to be “very disciplined” about where it deploys its capacity for P&C risks and ensure it gets the “right price for the exposure”.

AIG’s CFO Mark Lyons agreed that there are no signs of price increases decelerating. He added that price rises started a little bit later for international business, so its market trajectory is slightly different to North America.

Patoma Admin by — February 24, 2021 in Insurance 0
Cyber crimes hit Nigeria, Morocco as countries scamper for cyber insurance

By Favour Nnabugwu

Cybercrime, the phenomenon that does not believe in geographical boundaries, threatens every country in the world.

Today it poses a major threat to the stability of all states, as it feeds on the fruits of the exponential evolution of information and communications technology, such as the Internet.

The Internet has become an essential means of economic development and social transformation.

This is the case in Nigeria and Morocco as in most countries that have opted for economic openness and transformation towards an information and communications society.

The use of work tools (computers, laptops, tablets) for personal use is seen as a major risk to the security of information systems. Teleworking and the use of the Cloud are also considered to be among the factors exacerbating the risk

Nigeria is said to have lost $649 million to cyber attack. According to Hiscox, cyber attacks cost organisations about $200,000 on the average. The NotPetya attack for example cost pharmaceutical giant, Merck $870,000,000 and Danish shipping company, Maersk $300,000,000. The above underscores the Impact of cyberattack to an organisation or a country as a whole.

Only insurance can ameliorate the lost to cyber crimes. A cyber insurance policy, “also referred to as cyber risk insurance or cyber liability insurance coverage (CLIC), is designed to help an organization mitigate risk exposure by offsetting costs involved with recovery after a cyber-related security breach or similar event.”

Cyber insurance is fast becoming an integral part of survival for organisations. According to PwC, the cost of premium is predicted to be $7.5 billion by 2020.

Cyber insurance policy characteristically covers expenses related to first and third parties claim. The cover include cost of the breach, infringement of data protection and privacy laws, and cost of recovery. When there is a claim, the insurance company is expected to indemnify the assured the cost of forensic investigation; computer and data restoration costs; business interruption; public relations cost; notification of victims of the breach cost; electronic theft and fraud protection; and cyber extortion. In the event that a third party suffers from the loss occasioned on the assured, the insurance company will be expected to indemnify the third parties in accordance with the terms of the insurance policy.

Threatened by the phenomenon of cybercrime, Morocco is also aware of the duality of the need for digital transformation and cyber risk.

Morocco has updated the wording of its laws, especially the penal code, and has implemented new decrees and laws regarding digital regulation such as Law 53-05 regarding electronic exchange of legal data and Law 09-08 regarding automated processing of personal data.

The fight against cybercrime requires certification of human skills in analysing and understanding advanced coding, programming and information technology development techniques. .

The fight against cybercrime also certainly involves raising awareness among Internet users and providing continuing education to information systems security managers.

Patoma Admin by — February 24, 2021 in Insurance 0