What’s New: In Brief (March 09, 2009)

Canadian Western Bank, of which Canadian Direct Insurance Incorporated is a subsidiary, announced a 2009 Q1 profit of Cdn$25.6 million, down 1% from the same period of the prior year.”First quarter net income from insurance operations of [Cdn$800,000] represented a 46% decline compared to a year earlier, reflecting high frequency and severity of claims in the British Columbia (BC) home product line due to severe weather,” the bank reported in a statement.Canadian Direct Insurance provides personal auto and home insurance to customers in B.C. and Alberta.

Recognizing that media and non-media companies are now disseminating information and other content through multiple channels, the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies has launched a new product called MediaGuard.  The errors and omissions (E&O) liability insurance policy, available in the United States and Canada, can help provide financial protection against a broad array of traditional and emerging media-related exposures, Chubb notes in a release.The policy provides third-party liability protection against exposures such as defamation, invasion of privacy, copyright and trademark infringement, misappropriation and advertising errors and omissions. Enhancements include stand-alone insuring clauses for news media and multimedia E&O, producers E&O, Internet liability and news media subpoena defense costs. Other enhancements include built-in advertising coverage (content and E&O), merchandising coverage for production activities and automatic coverage for Web sites created after policy inception.