INSURANCE NEWS

Companies Count the Costs After Blackout in Spain and Portugal

As factories, stores and hotels across Spain and Portugal gradually returned to normal on Tuesday after a huge blackout the day before, business associations and companies began counting the cost. Spain’s main business lobby CEOE estimated the outage would shave …
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Zombie Ships Are Fast Becoming a Feature of Venezuelan Oil Trade

On Good Friday, an aging supertanker fully laden with oil and calling itself Varada arrived in the waters to the east of Malaysia after a two-month voyage from Venezuela. The vessel raised some red flags: it was 32 years old, …
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UK Warned Cuts to Flood Defense Are Too Dangerous to Consider

The UK should spare flood defense programs from budget cuts to be announced in June, as the country is already woefully unprepared for worsening disasters linked to climate change, a government adviser has said. “We are seriously concerned that resilience …
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People Moves: Mosaic Promotes Duggan to Lead North American Claims; Hiscox Names Sinkus CUO in US; EPIC Appoints Jackson Managing Principal, Global Leader

Mosaic Promotes Duggan to Lead North American Claims Mosaic, headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, named environmental and casualty risk specialist and former district attorney Thomas Duggan as the company’s claims head for North America. Based in New York, Duggan will oversee …
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Three Workers Killed in Scaffold Collapse at LNG Plant in Texas

Three workers were killed and two were injured when a section of scaffolding collapsed early Tuesday at a liquefied natural gas plant that Sempra is building in Texas. The two survivors at the Port Arthur LNG project were rescued from …
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Loss of FEMA Program Spells Disaster for Hundreds of Communities and Projects

The textile mills that once served as the backbone of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, have long been shuttered, and officials believed federal money would be key to the town’s overdue revitalization. They hoped an improved stormwater drainage system and secured …
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Heritage Files Libel, Defamation Suit vs. Adjuster After ’60 Minutes’ Report

Six weeks after Tampa-based Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. filed a libel suit against a whistleblower claims adjuster, the adjuster’s lawyer has pushed back, arguing that the suit is an attempt to silence those who question insurers’ damage estimates. …
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Arch Capital’s First-Quarter Profit Halves on LA Wildfire Losses

Arch Capital’s first-quarter profit fell 49.2% as catastrophe losses from the California wildfires weighed on its underwriting performance and investment returns, the insurer said on Tuesday. The results mirror those of peers W R Berkley and Chubb, which also reported …
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Church Agency Denied Religious Exemption for Nixing Married Gay Employee’s Insurance

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been found to have violated Maryland’s employment anti-discrimination law when it discriminated against an employee because of his sexual orientation. U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin ordered CRS to pay $60,000 to the married gay former …
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Ransomware Hack Said to Be Cause of Marks & Spencer Outages

A ransomware attack is the cause of a disruption at Marks & Spencer Group Plc., with hackers using a potent kind of malware to lock down some of the British retailer’s systems and render them inaccessible, according to people familiar …
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Apollo’s Aspen Insurance Targets $2.9B Valuation in US Stock Market Return

Aspen Insurance said on Tuesday it was seeking a valuation of up to $2.85 billion in its New York flotation, as the Bermudian specialty insurer looks to go public again in the United States after more than six years. Stock …
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People Moves: CEO of Carbon Retires for Health Reasons, Succeeded by Ferrier; Chaucer Taps SCOR’s Brown, Everest’s Cleair as Underwriters for International Property

This edition of International People Moves details appointments at the managing general underwriter Carbon Underwriting and specialty re/insurer Chaucer. A summary of these new hires follows here. CEO of Carbon Retires for Health Reasons, Succeeded by Co-Founder Ferrier Carbon Underwriting …
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