The insurance industry seems to be going through a lull. Things are quiet, with few major news events, no major catastrophes rocking the industry and a general sense of calm. How much of this is merely the swimming duck effect, with the appearance of calm on the surface, but energetic kicking happening under the water remains to be seen - but there is certainly a lot going on behind closed doors. In…

As part of a general wave of European institutions putting their Asian operations up for sale, five insurance firms have expressed an interest in purchasing British Firm, Aviva's, 49 percent stake in its joint venture with Malay bank, CIMB. These sales come on the back of an increasingly unstable European economy which has affected both Aviva and Dutch company, ING, also currently looking to sell their…

Swiss global insurance giant, Zurich, is on a profitable track this year, with positive results coming in from the First Quarter reports.
The group reported a total business operating profit of US$ 1.4 billion for the First Quarter of 2012 with an operating profit increase in the General Insurance sector of US$ 567 million to US$ 856 million.
It appears that Zurich may be overcoming difficulties…

London based insurance company Aviva is now the sixth largest insurance group worldwide and the largest provider of life and general insurance in the United Kingdom. Despite having a strong start to the year so far, Aviva will be undertaking a much needed strategic review of its businesses to aid the company in its recovery after the departure of Chief Executive Officer Andrew Moss. Moss, having…

ING Groep may see a flurry of activity in the near future as it has received multiple bids for their asset management operations in Asia, as well as seeing multiple parties squaring up to bid on their Asian life insurance assets. ING must sell off their global insurance business in order to fulfill their agreement with the European Commission and repay the US$7 billion bailout it received in 2008.…

Singapore's life insurance industry has been able to weather volatile global capital markets to great affect this past year, with new business premiums crossing the S$2 billion threshold for the first time in 2011 according to a new report. In their year-end dataset released this week, the Life Insurance Association of Singapore (LIA) revealed that the…

Despite mixed stock movements in China recently, Chinese insurance companies have seen premium income grow over last year's results, including China Life which recently begun trading in Hong Kong and Shanghai. China Life Insurance, China Pacific Insurance Group and Ping An Insurance Group, which includes Ping An Life Insurance, Ping An Health Insurance, Ping An Annuity and Ping An Casualty Insurance,…

Nippon Life Insurance Company, Japan's largest life insurer by revenue, has announced plans to expand overseas and invest €500 million (US$725 million) in a unit of Allianz SE, with the transaction expected to close later in the week. This deal marks the Japanese company's first investment in a European peer, and it is also the first time that the German insurance giant has issued contingent capital…

A new report published today by Standard & Poor's (S&P), the foremost worldwide insurance rating and information agency, affirms the life insurance industry outlook in the Asia- Pacific region as generally stable, although it warns short-term investment risks may arise. S&P now assert that the pronounced economic development in the region combined with macro regulatory improvements regarding solvency…

The Indian insurance industry will continue to outpace the country's economic growth and is projected to reach US$ 350 to 400 billion in premium income by 2020. These figures will put India amongst the top three life insurance and top fifteen non-life markets in the world within the next nine years, according to a new report. At present, the insurance sector in India comprises of 23 different life…