Business closings, event cancellation and mortality were the main drivers of the COVID-19 USD 3.9 billion losses, mostly incurred in Q2 and Q4, that have significantly affected Swiss Re's financial result for 2020, pushing it in negative territory.

Andela SUTIJA, CEO of ANO Insurance and Reinsurance Broker was elected the new President of the Association of Insurance and Reinsurance Brokerage Companies at the HGK (Croatian Chamber of Commerce) session held on February 17. Mate MARKOTA, a member of ZABA Partner, was elected her Deputy.

Austrian UNIQA's 2020 results exceeded the Group's expectations as formulated in April. GWP went up 3.6% after consolidation of AXA-CEE in Q4, while preliminary earnings before taxes reached EUR 57 million, including the EUR 243 million one-time charges for restructuring, adjustment of goodwill in CEE and AXA integration.

Motor insurance lines are still struggleling high combined ratios, despite the lower acquisition and administration costs achieved through digitalization; on the other hand, the industry will join the effort of setting up an efficient direct settlement system, top representatives of UNSAR explained recently.

Insurance Europe has published its response to a consultation by the European Commission on its proposals for a digital levy.

Kosovo active 13 insurers reported aggregate net profit of EUR 4.1 millon at the end of 2020, as compared with a market net loss of EUR -2.8 million at December 31st, 2019, according to data provided by the Central Bank (CBK).

At the end of 2020 the BiH insurance market totaled EUR 386.76 million (BAM 756.45 million), 0.83% less y-o-y, according to the YE 2020 market figures published by the local insurance agency - AZOBIH.

The value of GWP of the insurers operating in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina decreased by 0.55% to EUR 270.52 million, while the Republika Srpska based insurers generated EUR 116.24 million, down by 1.48% y-o-y.
In terms of GWP, the top three largest insurers in the country were FBiH based insurers ADRIATIC osiguranje (9.13% market share), SARAJEVO osiguranje (8.60%) and EUROHERC osiguranje (8.27%).

AM Best has issued a Report named "A Very Particular Regime - EIOPA's Solvency II Review Advice" which examines some of the Solvency II reform proposals, concluding that the proposals will make a start in moving Solvency II closer to providing an economic picture of insurers.

Organized under the title "DIGITALIZATION between ups and .... Traps", the 2021 edition of the Insurance in the DIGITAL World Conference has launched the agenda of the event. Several top-notch speakers, will deliver presentations and will participate in two panels of discussions.

New Vision 3 (NV3) and venture capital fund Eleven are investing in Boleron, a software platform for digital insurance, used by the Bulgarian insurance broker Boleron Consulting, around EUR 500 million, to accelerate its expansion in new client verticals across the SEE region, as well as enable team expansion and product development.

After the successful partnership in Slovakia and Czechia focusing on provision of IT solutions on the Platform as a Service (PaaS), Asseco Central Europe and Youplus Insurance International AG have agreed on another cooperation, aiming to gradually expand in German speaking countries.

In 2020, GWP of the life insurance sector exceeded RUB 450 billion (~EUR 4.95 billion*), which is 4.1% more y-o-y, while the sector's paid claims increased 1.5 times to RUB 211 billion, according to the data, the All-Russian Insurance Association (ARIA) received from 23 life insurers, as the press service of the association reports.

The international rating agency Fitch Ratings has improved the Financial Strength Rating Outlook of AlfaStrakhovanie from negative to stable. The rating is confirmed at BB +, writes ASN with reference to the agency's release.

In 2021 Kazakhstan is planning to allocate KZT 3.3 billion (~EUR 6.5 million*) to subsidize agroinsurance. The Kazakh plant growers can insure their farms on the soil moisture index, and that half of the cost of insurance is paid by the state, Kazinform news agency reports with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The election of the Board of Directors of Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) will take place on April 7, 2021 during the Annual General Meeting which will take place without the physical attendance of shareholders. Sabine Keller-Busse was proposed for election to the Group's Board.

The Bank of Lithuania expects a moderate growth of the insurance market this year, by 3% to 5%, up to a total EUR 997 million in GWP. While the non-life business is expected to recover from the 2020 fall, life insurance will grow at a slower pace than last year.

Insurance Europe has published a new paper which outlines its support for the European Commission's aim of promoting safe AI, as well as the federation's positions on liability and artificial intelligence (AI).

The members of Czech Insurance Association (CAP) announced that during last year they inspected a total of 9,362 suspicious insurance caim files, 14% more y-o-y, detecting insurance fraud in total amount of CZK 1.23 billion (~EUR 48 million) , 8.7% more y-o-y.

Holistic Framework for Systemic Risk represents a significant improvement on the previous entity-based approach. The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) is currently developing liquidity metrics to assess insurers' liquidity exposures which aims to assess and mitigate the potential build-up of systemic risk in the global insurance sector.

MEDIHELP International and AXA Partners, with the support of AXA Global Healthcare - announced an strategic partnership offering to Romanian insureds new private health insurance with international coverage, with a limit of up to EUR 3 million - depending on the chosen plan among five plans - informed www.1asig.ro here.