Sadiq Khan, London mayor, said the measure was aimed at improving air quality in the capital, tackling climate change and easing congestion. The city’s current ultra low emission zone (Ulez) covers all areas within the north and south circular roads that boundary central London.

The expansion will extend the Ulez zone to the outer boundary of Greater London from August 29 next year. The area is already covered by the London low emission zone, which charges the most polluting trucks and buses.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright

The action, filed in Florida late on Monday, includes a claim that the insurers, which include the US’s AIG, Axis and Chubb, have acted in bad faith on policies covering 23 aircraft following the war in Ukraine.

That claim could allow a jury to award punitive damages to Carlyle beyond the $700mn that a person familiar with the case said the company was seeking.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright

Since December 2021, workers at the site have been using the bubble-shaped, electric bus to get around, participating in an experiment with major implications for transport policy and insurers. The steering wheel of the vehicle has been removed as part of work to make it fully self-driving. It is the first such vehicle allowed on the UK’s public roads.

The experiment is taking place as the first mass-market vehicles with some self-driving capability are close to arriving in the UK market. Both Mercedes and BMW are preparing to launch UK models that will be able to keep in a lane and drive themselves in slow-moving motorway traffic.

Williams said customers should also benefit financially if there were fewer accidents. “You have to believe that premiums are going to go down.”

However, Milliner insisted that, while the new technology was generally a “positive”, there were also “elephant traps”. It was vital, he said, to anticipate the drawbacks and ensure other more vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists were also protected.

“You do not want to be inviting these things into your world without thinking about that.”

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright

The Zurich-based group on Tuesday forecast a third-quarter net loss of about $500mn, thanks to an expected $1.3bn in claims from Hurricane Ian.

While the company had given an overall target for return on equity for the full year of 10 per cent, it had not said what net income it expected to report in the third quarter.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright

Initial forecasts for the industry’s losses from the storm have reached as high as $75bn, which would make it the costliest natural disaster ever in nominal terms. In real terms, only 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, which generated insured losses of $65bn —$99bn in 2022 money — has inflicted greater losses.

Ian hit Florida’s west coast on September 28 near the town of Fort Myers as a Category 4 storm, crossed the state to the Atlantic and then went on to hit South Carolina on September 30. At least 127 people died in Florida alone.

The fallout from Ian comes just as the industry was already grappling with several headwinds, including losses stemming from the war in Ukraine and billions of dollars of claims for losses resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, higher inflation has driven up the cost of meeting many claims.

Meanwhile, losses from the storm are likely to push a further series of small, local insurers in Florida into insolvency, in a market where six have already been forced to seek protection from creditors this year.

Patrick Davison, underwriting director at Lloyd’s Market Association, which represents members of London’s Lloyd’s insurance market, said there were “clear opportunities” for the best-performing insurers in what he called a “tough catastrophe environment”.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright

Over the past two decades, the UK has seen the emergence of the so-called bulk annuity market, where specialist insurers take over defined-benefit pension schemes.

The market already had enjoyed fresh momentum earlier this year from the increase in government bond yields as inflation and interest rates rise. Rising yields reduce the scale of the long-term liabilities pension funds have to meet, making it more attractive for insurers to take on the responsibility for the schemes.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright

The Financial Conduct Authority said on Tuesday it would use “all regulatory tools” to rectify the “significant issues” it had encountered when analysing companies’ handling of such claims.

Business interruption claims have proved an area of significant controversy for insurers since the start of coronavirus lockdowns in March 2020.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright

The challenge facing AerCap has been set out in legal papers filed at the High Court in London, where the case pits the Dublin-based company against one group of insurers led by AIG of the US and another led by the Lloyd’s of London insurance market.

AerCap believes it has a valid claim for the loss of 116 aircraft and 23 spare aircraft engines that the company has failed to recover from Russian operators since February 25, the day after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

However, AerCap’s filing said the all-risk insurers should accept its claim.

“Wrongfully and in breach of the policy, the Section One insurers have not paid the sum or any part of it to the insureds,” its case said.

The two groups of insurers disagreed in their filings on what should happen if the court held that, contrary to their arguments, the aircraft had in fact been lost.

The group led by AIG argued that the decision to retain the aircraft was a political one — which could put it outside the scope of the coverage that they provide.

“In the circumstances . . . the acts of the lessees . . . were acts done for political purposes,” their defence argued.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright

The company blamed the gloomier outlook on inflation, which has driven up the cost of paying claims. Saga now expects underlying profits of £20mn to £30mn for the 12 months to January 31, down from a previous range of £35mn to £50mn.

Euan Sutherland, chief executive, attributed the cut to the forecasts to the effect on Saga’s insurance underwriting business of the “underlying inflationary environment around insurance claims”.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright

Vessel Viewer, announced at a marine underwriters’ conference last week in Chicago, is one of the fruits of the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance established at the United Nations’ 2019 climate action summit. Financial industry companies committed under the alliance to action to combat environmental threats.

Insurers can face prosecution if they provide cover to vessels that fish in waters where they lack permission to do so, exceed set quotas for catches or are guilty of other clandestine acts. Insurers believe that vessels that engage in such activities also pose a greater risk of fraud and other misconduct.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright

Clarke also accused the insurance sector of failing to take sufficiently seriously the problems posed by the precipitous cost increases.

He was speaking on Wednesday after publication of a report by the Financial Conduct Authority into insurers’ behaviour following the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people and exposed the dangerous state of many British high-rise buildings.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright