All articles by LII editorial
LII editorial
New York Life sells Hong Kong and Korea units to ACE
Pursuing its strategy to rationalise its foreign operations, the US largest mutual insurer New York Life (NYL) has reached a definitive agreement with composite insurer ACE Group to sell its wholly-owned life insurance operations in Hong Kong and Korea for about $425m in cash. Commenting on the deal, Dick Mucci, chairman and CEO of NYLs non-US arm, New York Life International, said: “While these are well-established businesses, New York Life has made the decision, as part of a strategic shift, to concentrate on our operations in the US, where we have the leading market share in life insurance, and on our markets in Asia and Latin America where we have strong market positions.”
Canadian bank exits US market
Marking its exit from the US life insurance market, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Canadas biggest bank by assets, has agreed to sell its US unit Liberty Life Insurance (LLI) to Athene Holding for $628.1m RBC expects the transaction will result in a loss of about $115m under generally accepted Canadian accounting principles on both a pre- and after-tax basis Athene Holding is the parent company of Athene Life Re, a Bermuda-based reinsurer focused on the retirement services market, and Athene Life, an Indiana-domiciled US life insurance company focused on institutional funding through guaranteed investment contracts (GIC).
New York Life takes its web services mobile
New York Life (NYL) is keeping up with the fast-growing trend towards mobile internet access, with the launch of a new mobile website Bringing our many Virtual Service Center capabilities to a customers hand-held device delivers service in the most convenient way and we are very pleased to do so,” said NYLs head of individual policy services Gary Miller.
AIG draws closer to repaying taxpayers
Rescued from collapse by the US government in 2008, AIG promised in September to repay the US taxpayer in full The insurer is making impressive strides towards fulfilling this promise thanks to asset sales, the most significant so far being the just-completed initial public offer of its Asian unit, AIA. In a reaction reminiscent of a gold rush, investors flocked to get their share of American International Groups (AIG) initial public offer (IPO) of its Asian unit AIA Group on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October
US individual life market continues to disappoint
Across all age groups, MIB data shows that application activity in the market was down 2% compared with September 2009, while activity during the third quarter was down 2.6 compared with the same quarter in 2009.
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Zurich boosts its reach in the Middle East
Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Services (ZFS) has expanded its reach in the Middle East, with the acquisition of a 99.8% stake in a privately owned Lebanese composite insurer Compagnie Libanaise DAssurances (CLD) for an undisclosed sum The acquisition of Compagnie Libanaise DAssurances marks a key milestone for us as we accelerate the expansion of our operations in the Middle East,” said ZFS Middle East CEO Saad Mered.
MetLife aims at focus in Japanese life market
In a rationalisation of its operations in Japans life insurance market, US insurer MetLife has agreed to sell its 49% stake in Mitsui Sumitomo MetLife Insurance to its joint venture partner, MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, for 22.525bn ($275m). Commenting on the transaction, MetLife International Business executive vice-president Eugene Marks said: “This transaction also allows MetLife in Japan to concentrate on leveraging our strong market position, as a result of the Alico acquisition.”
British taxpayers foot £1.5bn Equitable bill
An end is in sight for long-suffering policyholders of Equitable Life Assurance Society (ELAS), who suffered losses following the near collapse of the UK mutual insurer nine years ago. A compensation payment totalling £1.5bn ($2.4bn) is to be shared by some aggrieved policyholders with payments starting in 2011 Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced the news on 15 October, during a speech in which he revealed planned drastic cuts in government spending.
US health insurers under fire for weeding out bad risks
US health insurers have over the past three years taken an unusually harsh approach to new membership applications by individuals with pre-existing conditions, reveals a new study by the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce (CCEC). The harsh approach seemingly pre-empts the Affordable Care Act signed into law on 23 March this year, which from 1 January 2014 will ban the practice of denying coverage or rejecting claims based on a persons health status, including pre-existing conditions. According to the CCEC study, between 2007 and 2009, the four largest for-profit health insurers, Aetna, Humana, UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint, refused to issue health insurance coverage to a total of more than 651,000 people based on their prior medical history.