March 2018/2

Crop insurers in the US anticipate lower premiums this year as prices for the nation's largest agricultural commodities - grains and soybeans - remained largely stable heading into 2018, while reinsurance rates may be down in the low-to-mid single-digit range.

Shipowners with loss-free accounts have received low-single-digit rate decreases on protection and indemnity cover at general renewals for the 2018/19 policy year.

One of the lessons of financial markets over the past two decades is that if you pay someone enough, they can provide you with fancy mathematics to justify almost anything.

PartnerRe's transfer of its upstream energy insurance portfolio to Ark Syndicate Management continues a strategic refocus on reinsurance that the Bermuda-based company embarked upon after being acquired two years ago.

US tax reforms will spur M&A transactions in the US and Bermuda this year, while Brexit malaise could benefit Asian deal-making, according to lawyers at Clyde & Co.

Biglari Holdings has pulled out of a $300mn deal to acquire Pacific Specialty Insurance, the firm said in a late December regulatory filing that came a few months after a deterioration in the target's financial results.

Increasing demand for a comprehensive insurance solution for fintech companies is pushing the London market to break down the traditional silos built around lines of business.

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is considering options for a new second season cover as it looks set to cut back its use of traditional reinsurance and catastrophe bonds for its 2018 cat programme.

Insurers are hoping that the pan-European data protection advisory body will intervene to safeguard the sector's ability to handle sensitive consumer data across the bloc after the General Data Protection Regulation takes effect.

Insurance Ireland has renewed calls for existing contracts spanning the post-Brexit border to be recognised after March 2019 amid signs of European Commission intransigence on the issue.

Global commercial cyber liability premium is set to hit $6.2bn by 2020, with the services sector likely to be the biggest buyer of the standalone product in that timeframe, according to a report by data analytics firm Verisk.

Capital management trends at the US-listed companies we follow were disrupted in 2017 by higher catastrophe losses and M&A activity.