All Features articles – Page 10
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Features
Is the price right?
Faced with rate reductions across most classes of reinsurance, companies are addressing the problem of how to manage the softening insurance cycle. Stewart Mitchell takes the temperature of the market.
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Features
Gambling with reserves
Reserve releases are keeping many insurers and reinsurers profitable, but have they gone too far and will the practice come back to haunt them? Some companies will soon have to make difficult decisions, says Steve Mathews of EMB.
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Country Analysis
Russia: Showing no fear
Russians often give a wry smile when they read advertising hoardings carrying the name of prominent (re)insurer Ingosstrakh. The brand name translates literally as ‘international fear’, an abbreviation of the Russian words for international and insurance (strakhsbor – ‘fear collection’).However, despite its Soviet-era origins and scary name, the giant company ...
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Features
Surviving Monte Carlo
Love it or loathe it, the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous is once again upon us. Helen Yates takes a look at the biggest conference in the reinsurance world and dusts off her crystal ball.
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Features
Enjoying Monte Carlo
Life, even at the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous, is not all business. Vitali Vitaliev takes in the sights and sounds of Monaco, stops by at the Casino, and luxuriates at the Hotel de Paris.
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Analysis
Validus Re: From Bermuda to Lloyd’s
Bermudan reinsurer Validus had to fight hard to acquire Talbot, but in winning the Lloyd’s managing agent, for a reported $400m, it increased financial security through diversification, as well as its global distribution. Mairi Mallon looked into the background to the deal.
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CEO Q&A
CEO Q&A Anthony Taylor
An interview with Anthony Taylor, the former chief executive officer and current executive chairman of Montpelier Re.
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Investment Analysis
$5bn new cat bonds for 2008?
The cat bond market had a record year in 2007. What are prospects for the current year? David Sandham spoke to some of the leading players.
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Features
Renewals Review 2008
We review 11 classes of reinsurance business and gather the thoughts of some of the leading underwriters brokers and observers to gain an insight into the impending renewals season.
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Features
Pooling together
With the rising cost of natural catastrophes around the world, public private solutions could provide a model for the future. Dr Simon Young explains how the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility has set a precedent.
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GR Focus
Modelling for investors
As the market for insurance-linked securities takes off, catastrophe modelling agencies are striving to make their products simpler for investors to understand and easier for issuers to apply. David Banks reports.
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Features
Insuring the uninsurable
Reinsurers face a future of ever-increasing catastrophe losses. The World Bank’s Eugene Gurenko discusses the industry’s role in an age of climate change.
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Analysis
Entering a Renaissance
RenaissanceRe has rebounded from the crisis it faced at the end of 2005 when founder and CEO James Stanard left the company. Today Bermuda’s only true monoline has its top-notch ratings back, and has been expanding and snapping up top talent, reports Mairi Mallon.
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GR Focus
Modelling future climate
The fourth assessment report from the UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) goes some way to predicting the impact of climate change on weather patterns.
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GR Focus
Dammed in China
The recent magnitude 8 earthquake in Sichuan was the strongest and deadliest earthquake to strike China in over 30 years. Dr Milan Simic describes the additional threat from manmade dams and lakes formed by earthquake-induced landslides.
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Editor's Note
Storm chasers
It’s that time of year again. On 1 June the North Atlantic hurricane season officially started. As a result, we’ve turned into an industry of storm chasers once again. We may not physically chase storms like the half-crazed enthusiasts racing around in their trucks in Tornado Alley, but we will ...
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Cover Story
Paying for catastrophes
Catastrophe losses are getting more and more expensive. Population growth and increasing wealth compound exposures while a changing climate causes more frequent and severe events. Ronald Gift Mullins asks, “Who should pick up the tab?”
