"The April 1, 2016 reinsurance renewal season has seen a continuation of the softening market for the fourth consecutive year. Premium savings have yet again been the main thrust for most buyers and the opportunity to broaden contractual terms and conditions continues," shows a recent report by WILLIS Re. The good news is that demand for reinsurance seems to pick up at last.

In the first quarter of 2016 Slovenia's second largest insurance and reinsurance group, SAVA Re, increased its gross premiums by 0.6% to EUR 153.5 million.

UNIQA Insurance Group announced the appointment of Jutta KATH and Rudolf KOENIGHOFER as new members of the Supervisory Board.

TRUST Re achieved Gross Written Premium of USD 174.0 million for the period ended 31 March 2016, while the Company's profits rose year-on-year to USD 8.4 million from USD 7.8 million at the end of Q1 2015, as a recent press release shows.

BALTA Insurance, member of the CEE leading PZU Group, concluded 1Q with a net profit of EUR 1.2 million, while the overall growth of the company, compared to the same period last year was of 13%.

UNIQA Group Austria 1Q2016 GWP fell by 15.7% y-o-y, to EUR 1,718.7 million "due to proactive reduction in single premiums in life insurance / Significant rise in premiums in health insurance (+3.1%) and property and casualty insurance (+1.8%) ", as the insurer pointed out in a press release.

CROATIA Osiguranje (CO) maintained its leading position in the Croatian insurance market, with a total share of 35.7% also continuind to lead in all three segments of the life, non-life and health insurance. GWP achieved in the Croatian market amounted to 904.5 million kuna (~EUR 121.5 million), which is 45 less y-o-y. Health insurance was the segment with the best dynamic in 1Q.

On May 27th, French insurer AXA announced a series of appointments to form a new management team that will support Thomas BUBERL, who will be CEO of AXA as of September 1st, 2016, in the definition and implementation of the Group's strategy and management of its global operations.

On May 18th, NN Group announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of Dom Kredytowy Notus S.A. ("Notus"). Notus is a leading financial broker in Poland, offering mortgage loans, insurance, investment and savings products.

German insurer TALANX posted an 1Q2016 net income of EUR 222 million (or 11.6% less y-o-y) and GWP of EUR 9.0 billion, down by 4.7% y-o-y. The operating profit (EBIT) fell to EUR 573 million (vs. EUR 643 million), while the value of earnings per share in the first quarter of 2016 stood at EUR 0.88 (0.99).

ZURICH Insurance Group reported a business operating profit (BOP) of USD 1.1 billion (down by 16% y-o-y) and net income attributable to shareholders (NIAS) of USD 875 million (28% less y-o-y) for the three months ended March 31, 2016, the company announced in a statement.

Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield's catastrophe model development team, has launched a new version of its catastrophe model to enhance understanding the financial impact of floods in Poland. Aon Benfield is the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon plc.

MUNICH Re reported a profit of EUR 436 million for 1Q2016, down 44.8% y-o-y due to lower investment results and a loss in its insurance unit - ERGO. "It is now aiming for a profit of EUR 2.3 billion for the full financial year; until now, its forecast had been in the range of EUR 2.3-2.8 billion", the reinsurer announced in a statement .

The challenging conditions in the Group's insurance markets and the record low interest rates environment affected the financial results of the TRIGLAV Group in Q1 2016: while GWP volume decreased slightly, the return on financial investments fell by 74% y-o-y affecting the Group's profit. However, TRIGLAV's technical result improved, reflecting the overall stability of the Slovene insurer.

Turmoil in emerging markets, increased localisation of internet networks within country borders and financial repression are some of the key risks identified in this year's SONAR report. The publication is based on the SONAR process, an innovative crowdsourcing tool drawing on Swiss Re's unique internal risk management expertise to pick up early signals of what lies beyond the horizon.

"One of the main effects of TARSİM is seen in the agricultural sector as moving from crisis management to the risk management," stated Yusuf SATOGLU, General Manager, TARSIM - Agricultural Insurance Pool, Turkey for XPRIMM.

Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) performed as expected in the 1Q 2016, as shown by the Group's press release of May 24th. A premium volume of EUR 2.7 billion was recorded, representing a 3.2% increase excluding single-premium business. Overall, premiums decreased by 1.8% y-o-y due to continued selective sales of single-premium products. The Group combined ratio after reinsurance (not including investment income) remained significantly below the 100% mark at 97.8% for the reporting period.

If P&C Insurance insurance company in Estonia and its subsidiaries in Latvia and Lithuania made EUR 3.1 million in profit in the first quarter of 2016, the company said LETA.

Volatile financial markets had a negative affect on first-quarter net income for AEGON, Netherlands-based corporate parent of Transamerica in Cedar Rapids.

The Annual General Meeting approved today the proposal by the Vienna Insurance Group Managing Board and Supervisory Board for a dividend of EUR 0.60 per share. This corresponds to a dividend payout ratio of around 78 percent of net profits, thereby continuing the Group's long-term dividend policy of distributing at least 30 percent of profit after taxes and minority interests.