insurance

There's more fallout from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has charged Allianz Australia Insurance Limited has been charged with seven counts, and AWP Australia Pty Ltd with one count, of making false or misleading statements regarding the sale of Allianz domestic and international travel insurance products.

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has today announced that it has preliminary competition concerns with Aon plc’s (Aon) proposed merger with Willis Towers Watson plc (WTW).

Note, unusually, this is actually a merger not a takeover: a new combined company will be owned as to approx 2/3 by AON and 1/3 by Willis shareholders. While shareholders have approved the deal, competition authorities around the world are not inclined to give an automatic nod.

On 13 May, the Monetary Authority of Singapore issued its market-segment specific "GUIDELINES ON PREVENTION OF MONEY LAUNDERINGAND COUNTERING THE FINANCING OF TERRORISM-DIRECT GENERAL INSURANCE BUSINESS,REINSURANCE BUSINESS, ANDDIRECT LIFE INSURANCE BUSINESS (ACCIDENT & HEALTH POLICIES)". Here are ten key phrases.

The World Bank, the leading provider of natural disaster risk insurance for emerging and developing countries, has issued catastrophe bonds that will provide a total of USD1,36 million in earthquake cover to Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

I hate buzzwords. I hate management-speak. And I really, really hate trends that appear to be one thing when really they are another. And more than all of those combined, I hate marketing-hype bubbles where everyone talks in breathless terms about the means instead of the ends or, even, the process.

So it follows, even though I've been fascinated by technology for decades, I'm irritated by the growth of so-called "fintech."

And I'm watching all the signs of a bubble.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has permanently banned the owner and sole director of an insurance brokerage from the financial services industry. Christopher John Griggs of Chris Griggs Insurance Offices Pty Ltd, Mount Pleasant, South Australia, forged documents and applied for credit using the names of third parties without their knowledge.

In Part 3 of his analysis of whether insurance against internet crime is a viable business model for insurance companies, Nigel Morris-Cotterill demonstrates how the risks are wide and varied and cannot be accurately assessed, resulting in a bad business model for insurance companies.

To rescue the UK's economy from the 1973-75 crisis, one of the measures adopted was to increase consumer credit and to reduce the constraints on lending. One concept has been a contributory factor to almost every financial crisis, in the UK and elsewhere, since: the ability of the banks to lay off risk for bad lending decisions.

In Part two of his examination of the question of insurance against on-line crime, Nigel Morris-Cotterill says welcome to the world of insurance as an excuse for negligence.

Insurance companies live or die by the risks they take and the premiums they charge. It is time that companies offer insurance to consumers against the risks of on-line crime?

Nigel Morris-Cotterill, Author, Cleaning up the 'Net examines what's involved starting with an explanation of how lack of moral hazard has been a major contributor to a succession of banking and economic crises over a period of some 40 years. And why that is relevant to questions of insurance against on-line crime.

Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption has charged a number of people with a range of offences alleged to have been committed against insurance companies.