Industry
In a strange twist, Canadian-based Fairfax Financial Holdings continues its downward slide as its reinsurance subsidiary, Odyssey Re, experiences phenomenal growth. In releasing second-quarter 2001 results, Fairfax acknowledges that the company’s profits fell 45%, down to $46 million as compared with $83.6 million for the same quarter last year. The slump saw earnings per share […]
August 31, 2001
1 min read
Specialty auto insurer Kingsway Financial Services (TSE: KFS) continues to see growth in premiums and earnings mid-way through 2001. In a press release, Kingsway CEO Bill Star notes that the company is reporting record profits, earnings per share and premium levels for the second quarter of the year, and in year-to-date totals. Net income increased […]
Kingsway Financial Services CEO Bill Star (center) rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on July 11, celebrating the company’s first day of listing on the exchange. Star is joined, at his immediate right, by Kingsway CFO Shaun Jackson. With the listing, Kingsway becomes the first Canadian property and casualty insurer to […]
Kingsway Financial Services announces the appointment of Frank Amodeo as vice president. Amodeo has more than 20 years experience in the insurance industry, most recently heading up the Canadian branch of Winterthur International. David L. Emerson has been appointed a director to the boards of Royal & Sun Alliance’s five Canadian companies. Emerson is currently […]
After more than 10 years of heated debate and political positioning by various stakeholders, the new federal financial services legislation under Bill C-8 was proclaimed this past June. The new legislation was passed with the all-important block against the banks selling insurance products through their branches - this despite a delay in the bill's delivery due to the last minute general election call in the fall of last year. The fact that banking representatives made it clear before the Senate Financing Committee just prior to the passing of Bill C-8 that they expect financial services reform to be re-addressed incoming years, is a clear sign that independent insurance brokers cannot let up the pressure in their political lobbying campaign, says Ginny Bannerman, incoming president of the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC).
By Sean van Zyl, Editor | August 31, 2001
6 min read
In this era of rapid growth and development, technology is the key that unlocks opportunity. Unfortunately, the insurance industry has been slow to adopt technology as a primary tool, preferring instead to simply replace manual tasks with automation, and upgrade the old technology, with new, fast, low-cost systems. It is not that the industry is […]
By Ivor Kaye, Grantech Systems Inc. | August 31, 2001
4 min read
Rehabilitation healthcare costs associated with auto injuries have almost overnight become one of the biggest cost concerns for Canadian insurers. While the dramatic rise in treatment costs has much to do with attempts by the provincial governments over recent years to shift the spiraling healthcare cost burden onto the private sector, the greater injury to insurers lies in the myriad of unregulated service providers operating in the rehab sector and the ineffectiveness of the current "fee-for-service" payment system.
By Ian Campbell and Barbara Sulzenko-Laurie of the IBC | August 31, 2001
Canada’s property and casualty insurers came home with a meager 2.6% return on equity (ROE) for the 12-month period to end June this year. The latest quarterly financial figures released by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) show a 70% drop in the industry’s taxed earnings to $269 million for the first half of this […]
2 min read
Canadian financial services holding company E-L Financial Corporation Ltd. (TSE: ELF) saw earnings for the first half of 2001 drop by 9% to $30.8 million compared with the $33.8 million reported for the same period the year prior. This equates to earnings of 801 a share for the first six months of this year (June […]
Insurance market Lloyd’s of London is predicting that loss for the last two years will exceed 2 billion pounds (US$3 billion). Because Lloyd’s reports its results three years in arrears, it must estimate losses in the interim. For 1999, the market expects losses of 1.39 billion pounds (US$2 billion) and for 2000, losses of 694 […]
By Canadian Underwriter | August 31, 2001
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