Tough talking, loss making and forward thinking... Matt reviews this week's news
Another fascinating week in the world of insurance has seen more tentative talk of a return to offices, spats between insurers and regulatory bodies, Covid loss projections, cyber embarrassment and even what appeared to be puerile seamanship on an epic scale. Matt reviews some of the stories making the news this week.
As many of us are now thinking about what and perhaps where a post-UK lockdown working environment will be, Liiba (the London & international insurance brokers association) set out its stall this week with a request to keep a physical underwriting room in London, to facilitate complex negotiations and ‘serendipitous meetings’. It also called for an end to the traditional queues at Lloyd’s boxes for simple endorsements and questioned whether the formal dress code was still required. Interestingly, it also called for an end to mandated full-time office working.
There is bubbling gallic animosity between Covéa Group and market heavyweight Denis Kessler at Scor. Covéa is a major shareholder in Scor, which is accused of market manipulation and misuse of corporate assets. The war of words stems from Covéa’s aborted attempt to buy Scor in 2018. Scor described the accusation as “deceitful and groundless” and being generated by Covéa to divert attention from its CEO’s own travails. The entente cordiale between the two industry giants has well and truly ended.
Ardonagh’s shy and retiring CEO David Ross also made some interesting headlines this week with his criticism of the Competition and Markets Authority’s handling of the group’s attempt to buy motorbike insurer Bennetts. Ross described the CMA’s process as extremely frustrating and an extraordinary waste of money; quite definitively stating that Ardonagh would “never, ever, ever expose ourselves to a process like that ever again.”
Back to pandemic news, and Lloyd’s is expected to put a figure of £6bn to the market’s Covid losses. The comments were picked up by the Insurance Insider as CEO John Neal addressed a Marsh/OECD call this week. The figure is higher than the corporation predicted at its half year results last September.
Embarrassment this week for US insurer and major provider of cyber cover CNA Financial as it apparently suffered a significant cyberattack. The insurer’s website and phone and other employee systems had been targeted.
And finally, what might become a significant loss for London and global marine insurers. Ultra-large container ship Ever Given has blocked the Suez Canal (spawning a thousand memes), with local authority efforts to move the 200,000 tonne, 400m goliath so far proving fruitless. Lloyd’s List reported that a Lloyd’s Open Form had been signed and a joint salvage contract agreed. The knock-on impact to global trade – about 12% of global shipping trade goes through the canal - is unknown at this stage, as are the ramifications for the ship’s captain who, before blocking the canal, appeared to plot the kind of course any puerile 14 year old might (as reported by the Daily Mail).