The Financial Services Authority (FSA), the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have jointly published a discussion paper entitled “Consumer complaints (emerging risks and mass claims) (DP10/1)”. …
Read More UK: Joint Discussion Paper on Consumer Complaints Published

As a first step in the European Commission’s delayed review of the Insurance Mediation Directive (the Directive) the Commission has written to the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) requesting technical advice on revisions to the Directive to improve its functioning. 

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Read More EU: European Commission Starts Review of the Insurance Mediation Directive Including Conflicts of Interest and Transparency

Healthcare negotiations steadily moved forward last week, as details emerged on a potential timeline for completing action on a final bill in the coming weeks.  Despite optimistic endgame statements from Democratic leaders on both sides of the Capitol, legislative language remained in the final stages of negotiations by the week’s end, as leaders continued to count votes and await final cost estimates. 

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Read More Last Week in DC: The Healthcare Reform Debate – March 15, 2010

Even if the insured losses from the Chile earthquake fall in the mid-range of current estimates of between US$ 2 billion and US$ 8 billion, it will outpace Hurricane Wilma as the most expensive insured event in Latin America’s history, according to a release by reinsurance broker Cooper Gay. 

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Read More Latin America’s Most Expensive Insured Event Ever? Compliance and Coverage Issues Begin to Emerge as Reinsurers Continue to Estimate Impact of Chile Earthquake

Chan Kin-por, legislator representing the insurance sector in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, recently told the South China Morning Post that many customers and insurance agents have urged him to seek a regulatory change to help the launch of  yuan-denominated policies as many people believe that the yuan will appreciate in value over the next few decades and yuan life insurance policies may bring policyholders 20% to 50% growth in terms of investment returns and valuation gains. 

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Read More HK: Rising Demand for Yuan Policies

According to the Statistics on China Insurance Business for 2009 recently published by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), total insurance premiums in China received in 2009 amounted to RMB 1.11 trillion, up 13.8% from 2008. 

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Read More China: Insurance Market Performance in 2009

The head of the Insurance and Pensions Unit at the European Commission, Karel Van Hulle, confirmed that a meeting had been scheduled in early May to discuss extending the current October 2012 implementation deadline for the Solvency II regulatory regime to 1 January 2013. 

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Read More EU: Further Delays for Solvency II Implementation; No Exemptions for the Legacy Industry

Foreign reinsurers are beginning to count the cost of the earthquake in Chile last month, with announced loss estimates already surpassing $1.5 billion.  Total losses from the magnitude 8.8 earthquake are expected to be between $4 billion and $7 billion, although some estimates range as high as $10 billion. …
Read More Chile: Foreign Reinsurers Announce Earthquake Loss Estimates as Industry Sectors Survey Damage

Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) announced Thursday morning that he will release his updated financial regulatory reform bill on Monday.  While citing “significant progress” and indicating that many sticking points had been resolved, Chairman Dodd also acknowledged that “a few outstanding issues remain.” 

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Read More Senate Financial Reform Bill to be Unveiled Monday; Bipartisan Negotiations Fall Apart