MetLife's purchase of AIG's Alico in November this year is forecast to achieve significant improvements in earnings for the company in 2011. The scope for an increase in business activity was set out at MetLife's annual investor's conference held on the 6th December 2011, with growth primarily expected to be delivered from outside the American insurance market. The New York based insurer MetLife highlighted…

The government of China has announced that it is to encourage the development of the private healthcare sector in the country. The news paves the way for foreign firms to gain greater access to the Chinese private healthcare market. The news comes from the State Council - China's cabinet office - which is backing investment from the private sector in a bid to meet the growing demand for healthcare…

Zurich Financial Services (Zurich) through its International Surety, Credit and Political Risk group has entered into a partnership with Italian financial services group SACE. The deal has been struck through Zurich's North American operation and will work in concert with the Italian insurance and financial group SACE, which is controlled by the country's Ministry of Economy and Finance. The partnership…

The US Health Reform law mandates that by 2014, US citizens must have health insurance coverage or otherwise pay a hefty US$695 annual fine. It is estimated that the Health Reform will reduce the number of the uninsured from 19% of US citizens in 2010 to 8% by 2016. The Health Reform law imposes new regulations and fees on insurers, and although it expands coverage to the millions of uninsured Americans,…

Prudential the UK based major insurance company has highlighted Asia as its cornerstone market for business growth over the next 2 years. Pru's chief executive, Tidjane Thiam stated - at the Prudential Investor Conference in December 2010 - that the global insurer plans to drive the group's profits from business operations in Asia. Despite the UK-based insurer's highly publicized failed acquisition…

China's third largest insurer by premium income, China Pacific Insurance (CPIC), has announced that it intends to sell its 50 percent stake in the Pacific-Antai Life Insurance Chinese joint venture company. This is a move to further restructure the Chinese insurer's operations. The 50-50 joint venture is currently with Dutch financial company ING Group NV (ING), with CPIC looking to off-load its equal…

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) - a member of the World Bank Group - has awarded a US$4.1 million (€3.12 million) grant to support the provision of microinsurance in Eastern Africa. The grant will be awarded over the next three years to help 35,000 farmers and 5,000 livestock herders in Kenya and Rwanda. The grants will be used to finance advisory services, building and infrastructure…

A survey by professional service firm PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) has shown that foreign insurers operating in China expect their market share of the overall insurance business in the country to remain static in the short to medium term. PwC surveyed 31 foreign insurers currently present in China. Expectations emerged that the next three years will be stagnant for foreign insurance companies as local…

A recently report has found that nearly one in a hundred deaths worldwide are related to passive smoking, with the study estimating that 600,000 people die from second-hand smoking each year. The report by the World Health Organization (WHO) is one of the first global assessments of its kind looking into the affects of second-hand tobacco smoking. The results included in the report indicated that…

A study organized by the government of the USA and recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, dubbed iPrEx (Phase III Chemoprophylaxis for HIV Prevention in Men), has shown that a once-a-day pill could be used to treat HIV positive patients in combating the virus. Recent trials of the combination drug Truvada have been completed with nearly 2,500 men participating in the research; it…