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Sep 2020

News


Asian

Australia: General insurance body launches BI test case

With insurers denying coverage for losses caused by COVID-19 closures, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has commenced proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court to test the application of certain infectious diseases exclusions in business interruption (BI) policies.
 


China: Major insurers chalk up combined 6.6% growth from Jan-July

Five major A-share listed insurance companies in China – China Life, PICC, Ping An, China Pacific Insurance and New China Insurance – have posted a combined life and non-life premium income of CNY1674.4bn ($241bn) in the first seven months of this year. This is an increase of 6.58% compared to the corresponding period last year.
 


Global: Worldwide insured catastrophe losses estimated at $31bn in 1H2020

Global economic losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in the first half of 2020 stood at $75bn according to Swiss Re Institute’s preliminary sigma research estimates.
 


India: New privatisation policy may label insurance as strategic sector

The government of India may classify insurance as a strategic sector under a new privatisation policy along with sectors such as railway, defence and atomic energy.
 


Malaysia: General insurance falls 3.6% during pandemic

The general insurance industry in Malaysia registered its steepest half-year drop in recent years as it bore the full brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 


Singapore: Weighted new business life premiums fall by 13% in 1H

According to data released by the Life Insurance Association Singapore (LIA) for the period January to June 2020, the city state’s life insurance industry recorded a total of S$1.66bn ($1.21bn) in weighted new business premiums for 1H2020. This marked a 13% decrease from the same period in 2019.
 


Singapore: 17th SIRC to be rescheduled to 2021

With travel restrictions and social-distancing measures being enforced to combat the resurgence of the COVID-19 outbreak in many parts of the world, the organising committee of the Singapore International Reinsurance Conference (SIRC) has agreed that it would be impossible to organise a live in-person networking conference of the same quality and on the same scale as many in the industry have come to expect of the SIRC.
 


Risk

Threats to global supply-chain goes beyond pandemic

A new analysis by the British Standards Institution (BSI) has shown that while COVID-19 clearly remains the biggest supply-chain risk, threats from cargo theft, migration and human trafficking are also big issues, partly fuelled by the pandemic.
 


Cyber security skills gap continues to widen

A study carried out by the Enterprise Strategy Group and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) professionals reveals that cyber security skills continue to deteriorate for the fourth year in a row.