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19th January 2014

Weekly Insurance Global Analysis
Opinion

This week, Asia hit the headlines-Aviva announced a major life joint venture in Indonesia which could be the start of activity in the region bearing in mind its ceo's knowledge and connections. ACE is to buy a majority share in a Thai insurer as the first step, and JLT acquired in Hong Kong. Elsewhere, Desjardins is to purchase State Farm's businesses in Canada, and Brown & Brown and USI both bought in the US. Willis is to merge its UK retail and global specialty businesses, and AIG was awarded CII Chartered status in the UK.
The Financial Conduct Authority(FCA) finalised inducements guidance as the Retail Distribution Review(RDR) settles down, and insurance industry fines rose by 160% last year and could continue to increase. EIOPA made its first announcement of the New Year, publishing its review of methodology for consumer trends reports.
The World Economic Forum's Global Risks 2014 report was published, The IUA identified four major challenges facing the London company market, and a Towers Watson report highlighted financial regulatory reporting changes and related product and IT issues facing US life insurers. Aon Benfield reviewed catastrophes in 2013 and AIR Worldwide estimated the insured cost of Extratropical Cyclone Xaver across Europe. Fitch said that the current low bond yields did not endanger European insurer ratings, whilst Standard & Poor's underlined the importance of preserving insurers'ability to support the European economy.
American Modern selected Guidewire's DataHub and InfoCenter solutions, and SNL Insurance acquired analytics specialist iPartners. Quindell was upbeat in its trading update and highlighted the performance of its Solutions division. GMC Technologies maintained its position in the Forrester Wave leader segment, and ProspX signed up Arch Insurance Group and QBE North America.
Articles on the above topics were included in those added to the Insurance Newslink and Financial Newslink global database service today at www.onlystrategic.com