Analysis

• Cloud outsourcing comes down to earth

  25 January 2021

  Insurers are being pushed to better manage the operational risks arising from the use of cloud computing. There are some deep challenges involved, but regulations are arriving that might help, as Ronan McCaughey reports

  

• Lawyer says he has "smoking gun" in US business interruption case

  22 January 2021

  John Houghtaling, who is handling $3bn in claims on behalf of small businesses forced to close by Covid-19, believes his case will be a watershed for the US BI saga. Sarfraz Thind reports

  

• Covid-19 vaccinations move the needle on mortality forecasts

  21 January 2021

  With the UK's Covid-19 vaccination programme being rolled out, experts tell Cintia Cheong about its impact on mortality in 2021 and what insurers should consider when projecting mortality trends

  

• "Responsible underwriting will become the norm"

  18 January 2021

  Renaud Guidée, group chief risk officer at Axa, is spearheading the launch of a net-zero underwriting alliance, an industry initiative to tackle climate change through underwriting. He tells Cintia Cheong why it's needed and explains the challenges ahead

  

• CROs pinpoint climate change as key issue for 2021

  13 January 2021

  InsuranceERM's year-end poll of risk management experts found widespread agreement that climate change would be a key risk and opportunity for the insurance sector in 2021. Paul Walsh reports

  

• EU and UK endorsement: the final hurdle

  11 January 2021

  Cintia Cheong charts the endorsement of the IFRS 17 insurance contracts accounting standard in 2020 and explains what happens next

  

• Germany's interest rate reserve gets bigger - and better

  07 January 2021

  German life insurers paid more into the Zinszusatzreserve again in 2020, despite the new "corridor method" of calculation that intended to unburden the sector. Industry leaders tell David Walker the ZZR remains fit for purpose nonetheless

  

• The new risks emerging from remote working

  05 January 2021

  The long-term effects of relocating staff from offices to their homes, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, are beginning to be understood. Risk managers have been satisfied in some respects, but deep concerns about staff wellbeing and the impacts on culture remain. Christopher Cundy reports

  

• The politics of pandemics

  31 December 2020

  Combatting the next pandemic will take a lot more than vaccines, according to Frank Schiller, a board member of Germany's actuarial association. To cover the risk, insurers will need a deft understanding and the ability to work closely with the political world, as Schiller explains to David Walker

  

• Covid-19 mitigation in the US: compliance drops, virus rages

  29 December 2020

  In a follow-up to his article on applying ERM expertise to limit the spread of Covid-19, Dave Ingram reports on adherence to mitigation requirements in November, including for the key Thanksgiving holiday