All articles by LII editorial
LII editorial
Foreign insurers get Malaysian takaful boost
In a move aimed at expanding the reach of Sharia law-compliant takaful insurance in Malaysia, the countrys central bank, Bank Negara, has granted licences that will see the formation of four joint ventures family takaful operations American International Assurance Berhad, in which American International Groups Asian subsidiary AIA Group has a 70% stake and Alliance Bank Malaysia a 30% stake;
Old Mutual plans South African property IPO
Old Mutual South Africa (OMSA), a unit of UK insurer Old Mutual plc, has announced plans to list a large portion of its property investments on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The properties are currently housed in Triangle Real Estate Core Fund, a pension fund investment vehicle of OMSAs life insurance division The total value of the listed property fund will be some ZAR12bn ($1.65bn) including a targeted ZAR5bn to be raised in the initial public offering scheduled for mid-2011
South African insurers detect record number of fraudulent claims
Fraud detected by South African life insurers in 2009 soared by 119% compared to 2008 to ZAR824.2m ($115m, reveals data released by the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) Fraudulent claims represented about 0.5% of total claims and benefits of ZAR176.6bn paid by the life industry in 2009. ASISA deputy CEO Peter Dempsey said the rise could be attributed to the difficult economic conditions as well as improved detection measures implemented by insurers
Brazilian government forges ahead with state insurer plan
Brazils minister of finance Guido Mantega has confirmed the government is to establish a state-owned insurer to be named Empresa Brasileira de Seguros (EBS) According to Moodys Investor Services senior analyst Rodolfo Nobrega the current draft of the bill relating to the establishment of EBS states that it could function in any segment of the insurance market
SEC loses fight for control of indexed annuities
A long-running battle between US insurance regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over regulatory control of the indexed annuity market has ended in victory for insurance regulators Victory came thanks to President Barack Obamas signing into law of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on 21 July Under the act, indexed annuities will continue to be regulated as fixed insurance products permanently, explained Sheryl Moore, president of Advantage Group Associates, a fixed and indexed annuity research firm.
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Pension funds bear the scars of 2008
Though private pension funds staged a solid recovery in 2009, a study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development of trends in its member countries reveals that damage sustained in the financial crisis was not fully repaired
Facing strong economic headwinds
Finlands life market is divided into two distinct sections, life insurance, which has fared poorly over the past decade, and statutory employee pensions, which have grown robustly Now, even pensions face a period of low growth as Finland battles to recovery from the ravages of an economic slump. Following a sevee recession in the early 1990s, which left unemployment at almost 20%, Finland emerged to become one of the European Unions economic growth leaders
China’s life market back on a strong growth path
Activity in Chinas insurance market regained its strong momentum in the first half of 2010, with premium income increasing by 33.4% compared with the first half of 2009 to CNY799.9bn ($120bn), reports Chinas official news service Xinhua, quoting the China Insurance Regulatory Commission The increase in the first half of 2010 was significantly higher than the 6.6% increase recorded in the first half of 2009 and the 10.9% in 2009 as a whole.
iPhone comes to advisers’ assistance
New applications for the Apple iPhone keep coming thick and fast, one of the latest being OmniLife, an application that enables advisers to provide clients with instant life insurance quotes on their phones Developed by Australian technology vendor Omnium, Omni-Life provides access to quotes on 120 products from 13 life insurers: AIA, AMP, Axa, Asteron, Aviva, CommInsure, ING, MLC, Macquarie Life, MetLife, Suncorp, Tower and Zurich Among its features, OmniLife enables advisers to generate a range of summary and detailed reports from insurers, compare products and set varying commission levels for different insurers which will adjust premium quote results accordingly.
Employee benefit costs set to jump in the UK
Employers in the UK face significant increases in the cost of providing employee benefits such as life, critical illness and income insurance This warning comes from consultancy Aon Consulting following completion of its annual survey of insurers and reinsurers that provide group risk benefits in the corporate market. Employers and employees have had a relatively good ride recently with the cost of some of the most basic employee perks decreasing,” said Paul White, Aon Consultings head of risk benefits consulting