INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Holistic Approach Needed To Maintain Resilience In A Complex Risk Landscape: Swiss Re
As the global re/insurance industry gathers in Monte Carlo, Swiss Re highlights the key themes set to shape this year's renewals discussions. The focus will be on how today's world of rapid change and persistent uncertainty impacts the re/insurance market, creates volatility and challenges the assessment of risks, along with the transformative impact of artificial intelligence. Read more.

Emerging Risks Could Drive Growth In Casualty Reinsurance Market
Aon plc, a leading global professional services firm, is pleased to announce the release of its casualty sector update, which reveals that emerging risks in the casualty sector could contribute approximately $5bn of reinsurance premium annually. Read more.

Incident Response Planning Key To Reducing Cyber Risk: Marsh
Despite being focused on post-breach activities, cyber incident response planning has emerged as a key cybersecurity control in reducing an organization's likelihood of experiencing a breach-related claim, according to a new report from the Cyber Risk Intelligence Center (CRIC) of Marsh McLennan, the world's leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy, and people. Read more.

Rival Partners With e2Value To Deliver Speed To Brokers, MGAs
Rival Insurance Technology, a leader in insurance technology, today announced a new partnership with e2Value, a leading provider of online replacement cost solutions for the insurance industry. The partnership will bring e2Value's trusted valuation tools into the Rival Platform & Marketplace (RPM), giving brokers and MGAs greater choice and faster workflows to do business. Read more.

Mutual Fire Insurance Launches Digitally On Quotey For Hobby Farms
Quotey is excited to announce the addition of Mutual Fire Insurance to its growing insurer marketplace. MFI-appointed brokers are now able to easily quote and bind Hobby Farm insurance policies digitally through the Quotey platform. Read more.

Applied Systems Expands Flexible Payment Options For Canadian Brokerages
Applied Systems is pleased to announce new enhancements to its BMS-native digital payments solution, Applied Pay, by expanding payment options for Canadian insurance brokerage customers. Read more.

Western Surety Company To Acquire SGI Canada Surety Portfolio
Western Surety Company is pleased to announce the acquisition of SGI Canada's surety portfolio effective October 1st. The acquisition aligns with Western Surety Company's monoline surety focus, and solidifies its position as a top surety writer in Canada. Read more.

Foresters Financial Launches Advantage Max In Canada
Foresters Financial™ is proud to introduce Advantage Max to the Canadian market, a powerful new participating whole life insurance product designed to help maximize protection with strong cash value growth. Read more.

Sedgwick Brings Enhanced Lloyd’s Delegated Authority Services To Canada
Sedgwick, the world's leading risk and claims administration partner, is accelerating its North American strategy with the expansion of delegated authority services in Canada. Read more.

Accenture To Acquire Neuraflash To Enhance Its Salesforce, AI Capabilities
Accenture is pleased to announce it has agreed to acquire NeuraFlash, a leading Salesforce and gen AI consulting company that specializes in agentic solutions for sales, service, and field service operations. The acquisition will further strengthen Accenture's Salesforce gen AI and managed services capabilities and also extend its footprint to mid-market industries globally. Read more.

Most Consumers Distrust A.I.-Powered Search Results: Gartner Survey
A slight majority of consumers distrust or have a lack of confidence in the reliability and impartiality of AI search and summaries, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. This concern is reflected in user frustration, with more than four in 10 consumers reporting that generative AI overviews make the search process more frustrating than traditional search methods. Read more.

IBC Updates MB/SK Wildfire Insured Damage Total
As wildfires continue to burn out of control across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, CatIQ has issued new estimates for insured losses from the Flin Flon Wildfire Complex in May and June and the La Ronge fire. Read more.

School-Zone Congestion Sparks Safety Concerns
New findings from CAA South Central Ontario show that an increased number of parents believe that school zone congestion is increasing during both drop-off and pick-up times. Read more.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

vBots Intelligent Assistants
vBots, powered by Coventus, is a suite of automation bots that act as Intelligent Assistants to insurance agencies & brokerages. Our solution enables insurance agencies & brokerages to assign repetitive, manual processes to the Intelligent Assistants, and let their staff focus instead on high-value, revenue-generating activities. We have engaged with 100+ agencies, and our bots integrate with any AMS system, such as Applied Epic, Vertafore, HawkSoft, Veruna, and more. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

Property & Casualty Claims Adjuster
Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc.
Huntsville/Muskoka, ON

Personal Lines Broker (WFH)
Rizk Insurance Services Ltd.
Calgary, AB

From Doug (More) Autonomous Vehicles are Coming In the US, at least a half-dozen cities have autonomous vehicles operating on their roads, with announced plans for at least that many more cities. In China, at least 19 cities are actively testing robotaxis and robo-buses. In Canada, Ontario (since 2016) and Quebec allow regulated pilot programs for testing autonomous vehicles. Other provinces (NS, MB, BC and AB) are developing frameworks and regulations. No plans for more have been announced. The commercial value of autonomy seems to be around removing the cost, regulation and management of human drivers of taxis and trucks. Is the race speeding up? A highly publicized report from Goldman Sachs in June suggested fully autonomous taxis will be generating $5 billion of revenue in the US by 2030; that's a lot of robotaxi rides. Several years ago, the end of auto insurance was predicted to be imminent. As is so often the case with new technologies, the short-term impact was over-estimated, but the long-term impact under-estimated. Has the transition begun? In the coming years, how will “driving” change? As driving changes, how will auto insurance change? As auto insurance changes, how will the insurance industry change? Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca