UK-based insurance company Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has announced that it has completed an additional buy-in with the Trustee of the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund (MNOPF). The transaction includes £400m of liabilities representing the benefits of around 2,000 MNOPF pensioners. Notably, the buy-in follows a £1.6bn transaction that closed in February 2020. In this deal, PIC converted a longevity swap held between MNOPF and Pacific Life to secure the pensions of around 14,000 members. Established in 1937, MNOPF is an industry-wide pension scheme that enables shipping companies to ..read more

Incorporating smart home devices into home insurance policies could reduce the number and severity of claims, yet only a handful of insurers offer such policies, and our data shows there is significant demand from consumers. Meanwhile, a substantial proportion of UK policyholders would be willing to share data from smart home devices in exchange for lower premiums or other financial rewards. According to GlobalData’s 2021 UK Insurance Consumer Survey, 39.7% of home insurance policyholders with smart home devices would be either quite likely or very likely to share the data with an insurer in r ..read more

US-based professional services firm Genpact has announced the integration of auto insurance AI-based claims solution Claim Genius with its Claims Manager platform. Genpact’s Claims Manager leverages technologies, data and analytics to streamline the complexities across the entire claims lifecycle. The integration with Claim Genius will allow it to use artificial intelligence to offer virtual auto inspections, which is expected to cut costs and reduce time by 50%. Genpact insurance global business leader Sameer Dewan said: “The insurance industry has been evolving swiftly on the tail ..read more

Government-backed Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) embedded value has been placed at over $66.82bn (INR5trn), Reuters reported citing an official overseeing the insurer’s IPO. “I would say the embedded value could be more than INR5trn and the enterprise value will be multiples of that,”, department of divestment secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey told the news agency in an interview. The embedded value will help determine the market value of LIC, which is expected to be around four times INR5trn, as per Indian media reports. LIC is a key player in the Indian life insurance space ..read more

The UK Law Commission’s final report on regulation and legal accountability around autonomous vehicles can act as a stepping stone for improved confidence among consumers, regulators, and insurers. Completely autonomous (level 5) vehicles are forecast to start production from 2030, with around one million units set to be produced in 2036 according to GlobalData. The regulatory framework suggested by the UK Law Commission will be a key trigger for the progression of autonomous vehicles. Clear definitions of liability, along with a black-and-white determination of a car’s driverless capabilities ..read more

American crypto asset insurance company Evertas has received approval to become a coverholder at Lloyd’s of London. As a Lloyd’s coverholder, Evertas will be able to expand access to crypto-insurance offerings and provide insurance capacity to crypto asset investors. Evertas, which is the first Lloyd’s coverholder to cover digital wallet products, noted that currently, only 2-3% of global crypto assets are insured. Evertas will leverage its knowledge of crypto asset risk to write policies on behalf of Arch Insurance, a Lloyd’s syndicate member, which sponsored Evertas’ coverholder ap ..read more

Endsleigh will target students with parametric travel insurance, which will ease concerns around having to pay large costs up front, and GlobalData’s consumer survey shows that this is a demographic where insurers can increase their sales. GlobalData’s 2021 UK Insurance Consumer Survey shows that only 26.3% of respondents who were students bought travel insurance in the past year, which compares to 31% of the overall total. Therefore, targeting students with plans that will reduce any costs they could incur appears to be an effective strategy. Endsleigh is offering parametric travel insurance ..read more

Neilson Financial Services (NFS), a direct-to-consumer life insurance firm operating in the UK and Canada, has formed a partnership with the Post Office. The partnership will see NFS work with the Post Office to support the development of life insurance offerings. Currently, Post Office offers two life insurance covers that are Post Office Life Insurance and Post Office Over 50s Life Cover. NFS will also support the delivery of all Post Office Life and Post Office Over 50s cover policies. Neilson UK managing director Rob Clarkson said: “We look forward to supporting Post Office as they continu ..read more

Italian insurance major Generali has decided to reach out to the country’s insurance regulator to review the validity of the stakes acquired by three of its investors.  Generali’s major backers Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and Leonardo del Vecchio and smaller shareholder Fondazione CRT collectively own a 16.3% stake in the insurer.  The three have come together to rival Generali’s single biggest shareholder Mediobanca in a bid to appoint a new CEO. Generali stated that it will request IVASS to verify whether the stakes acquired by Caltagirone Group and Vecchio’s ..read more

Zego, an insurtech based in the UK, is set to expand into several new countries in a growing European market in 2022. According to GlobalData forecasts, the European commercial motor insurance market looks set to grow to $11.61 billion by 2025, offering good growth opportunities to the commercial insurance specialist. In its short existence, Zego has grown itself into an established and disruptive insurtech. After insuring its 200,000th vehicle in December 2020 (across the UK, Belgium, France, and Spain), it became the UK’s first insurtech unicorn in March 2021, having raised $150m in funding ..read more