All articles by Peter Johnstone
Peter Johnstone
Pan-American Life expands Latin American and Caribbean footprint
Pan-American Life Insurance Group (PALIG) has completed the acquisition of MetLifes assets and businesses in the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Panama, St PALIG expects to receive regulatory approval and close on the remaining MetLife businesses and assets in Caribbean countries over the next few months.
Questions mount over Aviva USA sale
However, according to the Daily Telegraph, the sale of Aviva USA, will lead to the crystallisation of an approximate £800m ($1.23bn) write-off, as a result of its fall in value.
Call for “level playing field” in Irish PMI market
The European Commission (EC) has proposed abolishing the unlimited state guarantee enjoyed by Irish health insurer Vhi Healthcare by the end of 2013. The EC said that since Vhi is a statutory body, and its statute does not provide for liquidation or winding up, this means Vhi cannot go bankrupt
Microinsurers face ‘trust’ gap
The total of low-income people with microinsurance coverage rose from 78 million low-income individuals in 2006 to close to 500m in 2011 Although Swiss Re says the market has the potential to cover up to 4bn low-income people worldwide, building trust among consumers is an issue. While microinsurance is a rapidly expanding market, building trust and educating consumers about the product type will be essential for the sector to achieve its potential
Canada’s life insurance supervisor urged to ‘tighten up’ quality control
The body responsible for supervising the safety and soundness of life insurers in Canada has been told that its management oversight needs to be strengthened in order to tighten up quality control The recommendation came in an internal audit of the Life Insurance Group (LIG) that is part of Canadian regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI)
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France enters ‘blue period’
Life insurers in France face a stiff test in the current financial climate with net outflows, consumers strained personal finances and political interference challenging their business models. One obstacle for the market is that bancassurers in France are currently concentrating on offering savings over life products. Furthermore, it appears that the French population is looking less to the state for support
Cigna signs JV with Turkey’s Finansbank
Health insurer Cigna has signed an agreement to acquire a 51% stake of Finans Emeklilik, the life and pensions subsidiary of Turkeys Finansbank Cigna will purchase the 51% stake Finans Emeklilik for 85m ($103.8m) and enter into a long term distribution agreement with Finansbank for the distribution of insurance products through its branch network and other channels
Aetna appointments underline European drive
US-headquartered health insurer Aetna has appointed Marco Bannerman as head of global partner sales and Mike Lewars as head of UK intermediary sales. The appointments come at a time when the provider is aiming to build its international private medical insurance business Based in the UK, Bannerman will direct the team managing Aetnas key global broker partnerships
Life expectancy rise prompts Israel to revise insurance rule
Israels Ministry of Finance has reportedly ruled that the life expectancy component of an employee benefit known as managers insurance will no longer be available to under 55-year-olds. Managers insurance typically provides a monthly allocation into an insurance fund of 18.3 percent of the employees salary, paid in part by the employer and in part by the employee
Aviva plans to be a ‘leaner’ operation
Aviva plans to exit 16 segments deemed to be non-core as part of a revised strategic plan to focus on fewer business segments where it believes it can produce attractive returns Speaking to Life Insurance International, a spokeswoman for Aviva explained that the term exit means that either Aviva may sell its stake in a business segment or stop writing new business for a particular sector.