Business insurance

Arch Capital Group Ltd. late Wednesday reported second-quarter net income of $718.7 million, up 54.1% from the same quarter in 2020, as premiums soared.

Net premiums written rose 42.3% to $2.22 billion in the second quarter of 2020.

In the insurance segment, net premiums written rose 43.3% to $963.6 million.

In the reinsurance segment, net premiums written rose 63.6% to $924.7 million.

In the mortgage segment, net premiums written rose 3.3% to $335.8 million.

Speaking to analysts on the company’s earnings call Thursday morning, CEO Marc Grandisson, said second-quarter rate increases averaged 10% and represented the sixth consecutive quarter of rate increases.

He noted, however, that “rate improvements have tapered off from previous highs in some lines,” but that Arch is still getting “rate on rate.”

Mr. Grandisson told analysts that Arch estimates 30% of its premium growth is from rate increases, some 15% from higher net retentions, and the

South Africa:

Insurance Law: Business Insurance Policies To Rescue Businesses Amid The Ongoing Unrest And Looting?

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. reported second-quarter net income of $900 million, up 94% from the year-earlier period, driven in part by written premium and underwriting gains in commercial lines and a decrease in COVID-19-related losses.

Despite the sharp rebound from the second quarter of 2020, Hartford Chairman and CEO Christopher Swift said in an earnings call with analysts Thursday that the insurer is “closely monitoring the recent elevated inflation data.”

Mr. Swift said he remains confident that Hartford’s loss ratio assumptions are “sufficient,” but added, “at the same time, we are considering pricing actions as we gauge inflation trends going forward.”

Hartford said after the markets closed Wednesday that property/casualty reported written premiums totaling $3.3 billion in the second quarter, a 12% increase from the year-earlier period. Its combined ratio was 88.5%, an 8.4 point improvement over the year-earlier period that the insurer attributed to lower COVID-19 incurred losses,

(Reuters) — A cyberattack disrupted container operations at the South African port of Cape Town, an email seen by Reuters on Thursday said.

Durban, the busiest shipping terminal in sub-Saharan Africa, was also affected, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Cape Town Harbour Carriers Association said in an email to members, seen by Reuters: “Please note that the port operating systems have been cyberattacked and there will be no movement of cargo until the system is restored.”

Transnet, which operates major South African ports, including Durban and Cape Town, and a huge railway network that transports minerals and other commodities for export, confirmed its IT applications were experiencing disruptions and it was identifying the cause.

It declined to comment on whether a cyberattack caused the disruption. The sources, who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the press, said an

Second-quarter 2021 renewal rate changes for most major commercial lines of business increased year over year, save for workers compensation, according to a report Wednesday from Ivans Insurance Services, a division of Tampa, Florida-based Applied Systems Inc.

When compared sequentially with results from first-quarter 2021, second-quarter renewal rate changes increased for commercial auto, business owner’s policy, general liability and umbrella lines, while commercial property and workers compensation saw decreases.

In commercial property lines, the average premium renewal rate change was 5.54% compared with 5.82% in the first quarter and 5.29% in second-quarter 2020. The quarter premium renewal rate change reached its low of 5.43% in May and its high of 5.68% at the end of the quarter.

For commercial auto, second-quarter average premium renewal rate change averaged 4.51%, up from 4.25% in the first quarter but down from 4.72% in second-quarter 2020. The quarter began with a high of 4.65%

Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. reported a nearly 20% jump in revenue in the second quarter as economies continued to reopen after going into lockdown ahead of the comparable reporting period last year.

The world’s largest brokerage also added about 2,000 staff in the first half, which included a significant increase in its rate of hiring from rivals Aon PLC and Willis Towers Watson PLC since those companies announced merger plans last year, Marsh McLennan’s senior executive said.

Its insurance and reinsurance broking units continued to benefit from higher insurance pricing pushing up commissions and fees, but price increases are moderating, Dan Glaser, president and CEO of Marsh McLennan, said in a conference call with analysts Thursday.

Key concerns for Marsh McLennan clients include the effect of climate change and cyber risk, he said, as cyberattacks accelerate. Marsh McLennan itself was hit by a cyber breach in April.

Marsh McLennan

Co-Founder and CEO of Ease, a leading HR and benefits software solution for small businesses, insurance brokers and insurance carriers. 

The past decade has brought more significant changes to the insurance landscape than the previous several decades combined. The popularity of cloud-based software in everyday life, the mass adoption of Zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic and millennials making up the largest generation in the U.S. labor force have all dramatically shifted the needs of small businesses across the country, especially with how they handle employee benefits.

As these changes continue to converge, small business HR priorities increasingly focus on three primary areas: bringing in and retaining talented employees, handling compliance issues and keeping overall benefits costs down. To help their clients achieve these goals, insurance brokers can leverage technology, enabling small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to satisfy the expectations of their employees and increase their business efficiencies.

With

Evan G. Greenberg, chairman and CEO of Chubb Ltd., on Thursday renewed calls on Capitol Hill for a public-private partnership for pandemic risk, saying such a program would lessen the financial blow of a future pandemic.

Mr. Greenberg’s comments came as he testified at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment to examine frameworks to address future pandemic risk.

Combining the insurance industry’s risk insight with the government’s balance sheet capability to take on “pandemic tail risk” would provide an “affordable, efficient liquidity backstop for small businesses and a market-based program for larger businesses,” Mr. Greenberg said.

However, Robert Hartwig, clinical associate professor and director of the Risk and Uncertainty Management Center at the University of South Carolina in Columbia questioned whether such a program was needed.

“Bearing in mind all of the pandemic insurance frameworks under consideration were developed during the very

A federal appeals court reversed a lower court Wednesday and ruled an American International Group Inc. unit is obligated to defend a retailer in connection with a data breach.

Houston-based Landry’s Inc., which operates retail properties including restaurants, hotels and casinos, discovered a data breach that occurred between May 2014 and December 2015 that involved the unauthorized installation of a program on its payment processing devices, according to Wednesday’s ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in Landry’s Inc. v. The Insurance Co. of the State of Pennsylvania. 

Over about a year-and-a-half, the program retrieved personal information from millions of credit cards and at least some of that information was used to make unauthorized charges, the ruling said.

The issue led to litigation between Landry’s and its credit card processor, Paymentech LLC, a unit of JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. Paymentech alleged Landry’s was obligated to

A Pennsylvania state court refused Tuesday to dismiss a COVID-19 business interruption lawsuit filed by a gym against its insurer, stating the business had sufficiently alleged a “direct physical loss or damage” to its property.

Brown’s Gym Inc. in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, filed suit against Cincinnati Insurance Co., which had issued it an all-risk policy that did not include a virus exclusion, in the Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County in Scranton, Pennsylvania, according to the ruling in Brown’s Gym Inc. v. The Cincinnati Insurance Co. and C.C. Young and Henkelman Insurance.

Cincinnati had denied Brown’s COVID-19 business interruption coverage claims on the basis it had not sustained a direct physical loss or damage.

The court disagreed. While the policy does not include a virus exclusion, it does contain a “communicable disease or virus” exclusion for other “crisis event response communication expense coverage,” it said.

This created “a reasonable