Fitch reported that major European reinsurer ratings are unaffected by the UK Business Interruption ruling. GlobalData said that Life and health insurance are the most likely products to see long-term benefits from COVID-19, and separately that the liability insurance industry in Asia-Pacific is estimated to reach $33.4bn in 2023. Disaster recovery and business continuity specialist Databarracks argued that the emphasis should be on the insurance industry to change its approach to one of remediation rather than paying out over ransomware demands.
$2tr is to be spent combating climate change in President Joe Biden’s Climate Plan. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) opened a week-long virtual meeting of experts to advance preparations of the Synthesis Report, the final product of its upcoming assessment, whilst The Insurance Development Forum(IDF) released its "2020 in Review" report outlining the progress of its Working Groups during a year of operational transformation, action and delivery. The Chartered Insurance Institute(CII) amended the criteria for obtaining the Chartered Insurance Underwriting Agent title for Lloyd’s coverholders. Insurance Europe published its response to a consultation conducted by the European Commission on the review of the European Long-Term Investment Funds(ELTIF) regulatory framework, and reported that changes proposed to PRIIPS will not work or deliver benefits for consumers.
Despite the challenges faced by the (re)insurance sector in 2020 and the relatively slow start to InsurTech funding for the year, global investment in the sector reached a new accumulated annual high of $7.1bn for 2020, through 377 deals, the most in any year to date, according to the latest Quarterly InsurTech Briefing from Willis Towers Watson-compared with 2019, total funding increased by 12%, while deal volume increased by 20%. Beazley enhanced its Reputational Risk offering with AI-enabled tools, and Eurapco and B3i launched Unity, the first global risk transfer operational solution developed on blockchain infrastructure. By Bits launched a new technology platform aimed at putting motor customers first, and Munich Re issued a report-"Augmented automated underwriting brings a new generation of underwriting to the life insurance market". InsurTech startup Nayms closed a £1.5m seed round.
Allianz China Insurance Holding received approval to set up the first wholly foreign-owned insurance asset management company in China, and Allstate announced an agreement to sell Allstate Life Insurance Company(ALIC). Fourth quarter and 2020 financials started to emerge including RenaissanceRe, Travelers, and Marsh&McLennan. There was a senior appointment at Lloyd's and Aon and Willis Towers Watson announced their future leadership team.
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