Legal News

According to the Association of British Insurers ( ABI), the share of women in senior management or board‑level posts at member firms edged slightly higher from 32% in 2022. The sector, long dominated by men, has grappled in recent years with reputational issues amid widespread claims of pervasive sexual harassment and bullying. Our latest figures indicate ongoing progress across the insurance and long‑term savings industry towards a more diverse, inclusive workforce, said Yvonne Braun, the ABI’s director of policy. The FTSE 350 of the UK’s......

AM Best, on 6 December 2024, stated that the revision to the so-called Ogden personal injury discount rate was broadly positive for the insurance sector, while cautioning that it was unlikely to materially influence credit ratings. The discount rate represents a calculation specifically intended to settle, via a single lump sum, liabilities such as medical costs and lost earnings across the rest of a claimant’s life. It is determined and reviewed by government every five years. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, in a statement to the London Stock Exchange dated 2 December 2024, said......

Riedweg v (1) HCC International Insurance Plc, (2) Sheridan v (1) Forsters LLP, (2) Johns [2024] EWHC 2805 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Master Brightwell’s ruling, which accords with and develops prior authority, makes clear that an insurer cannot itself add to the proceedings alleged tortfeasors or other parties whom the insured could have joined. Practitioners for insurers should be quick to seek to persuade claimants to join the insured, even if that involves accepting the costs consequences of such joinder, where doing so serves their interests in bringing in other prospective defendants... What was the background? The claimant issued a professional negligence claim. She alleged that Goldplaza Berkeley Square Ltd ( Goldplaza) negligently overvalued a property she agreed to buy for £8m in December 2016. She said she would not have entered into the purchase but for that...

Hurricanes, severe thunderstorms and floods were the primary drivers of this trend According to the research and development arm of reinsurance heavyweight Swiss Re on 5 December 2024, hurricanes, intense thunderstorms and flooding were the main forces behind the trend. This increase underscores rising risks for the sector, and for the planet, tied to climate change and urban growth. Swiss Re reported that Hurricanes Helene and Milton generated almost US$50bn of insured losses after hitting Florida in late September 2024 and early October 2024. Insured losses refer to payouts by insurers to meet the cost of damage from incidents such as floods, storms or fires. The firm added that severe thunderstorms across the US accounted for more than US$51bn of global losses, making 2024 the second-most-costly year for such storms, behind 2023's record US$70bn. Economic development remains the principal driver of rising insured losses from...

In its 2025 review of principal D& O risk themes, the German carrier warned that the insurance market faces elevated 'loss potential' over the next year, as outlined in its report for the period ahead. D& O cover shields a company’s top executives (directors and officers) against actions pursued by shareholders, regulators, staff, or clients. According to Allianz’s modelling, business failures are set to rise by 11% in 2025. No comparative data was provided by the insurer......

In this issue: Types of insurance UK Regulation EU Regulation International Regulation Case trackers Dates for your diary New and updated content Daily and weekly news alerts Lex Talk®Insurance: a Lexis®Nexis community Types of insurance Motor vehicle On 2 December 2024, the Labour government adjusted the personal injury discount rate, a move that specialists anticipate will trim insurance premiums for motorists in England and Wales. See News Analysis: Government revises UK personal injury compensation rate. Cyber Britain is confronting a widening gap in its capacity to counter cyber threats and must bolster its defences to meet the growing intensity and scale of hostile activity, the head of the nation’s foremost cyber security agency said on 3 December 2024. See News Analysis: Severity of cyber risk ‘widely underestimated’ in UK. Property The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority ( EIOPA) has opened a consultation on a proposed natural catastrophes awareness tool. It is designed to spotlight potential...

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who also serves as lord chancellor, announced via a notice to the London Stock Exchange that her administration will revise the discount rate applied to lump-sum personal injury compensation to 0.5%, up from minus 0.25%. The discount rate—often referred to as the Ogden rate—calculates a single payout intended to cover expenses such as medical treatment and loss of earnings over a claimant’s remaining lifetime. Government reviews and sets this figure every five years. The updated rate will take effect on 11 January 2024. This follows the government’s regular five-yearly review cycle......

As he unveiled the organisation’s annual review, Richard Horne, who heads the government’s National Cyber Security Centre ( NCSC), issued a warning, noting that malicious cyber activity is becoming more frequent and sophisticated. According to the eighth annual review, its incident response team dealt with nearly 2,000 reports in the 12 months to August 2024 and marked 430 incidents as needing support from the team—up from 371 in the previous year. Close to 90 of these were classed as ‘nationally significant’, while 12 sat at the highest end of the scale and were judged severe—a threefold rise on the year to August 2023......

Zurich Resilience Solutions announced that its Climate Spotlight solution comes in two distinct product versions. Firstly, Climate Spotlight Core delivers a self-service dashboard enabling organisations to spot climate risks that are present across numerous locations. Secondly, Climate Spotlight Expert layers in tailored configuration and guidance from the firm’s climate risk specialists. Grasping climate risk exposure and shaping robust mitigation and adaptation plans is strategically vital, according to Amar Rahman, the global head of climate and sustainability solutions at Zurich Resilience Solutions. Climate Spotlight serves companies and public-sector entities by granting them access to state-of-the-art......

In this issue: Cases and decisions Types of Insurance UK Regulation International Regulation Case trackers Key dates Daily and weekly news alerts Lex Talk®Insurance: a Lexis®Nexis community Cases and decisions Appeal tracker: Gatwick Investment Ltd and others v Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Se and other cases The Court of Appeal hearing is scheduled to begin on 21 January 2025. In an earlier ruling, the Commercial Court addressed specified preliminary points advanced by various claimants pursuing business interruption insurance claims against the defendants. These proceedings followed the Coronavirus pandemic and concerned policy interpretation issues, including whether payments received through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ( CJRS) furlough arrangements ought to be taken into account. The claimants comprised businesses that, acting in line with government guidance, were required to shut during the pandemic. The defendants were the insurers of the...

As the financial sector awaits the FCA’s policy statement on non-financial misconduct—intended to finalise the rule changes consulted on in September 2023—the regulator, in October 2024, released the findings of its survey on non-financial misconduct. In short, the FCA expects: senior leadership and boards of directors to discuss, challenge and properly oversee non-financial misconduct firms to maintain robust systems and controls that identify and address workplace issues, and firms to take immediate steps to ensure they have effective policies and practices in place The results In February 2024, the FCA issued a compulsory information request to more than 1,000 regulated wholesale financial services firms concerning non-financial misconduct. The FCA requested data and information from 2021 to 2023 on: the number of non-financial misconduct incidents logged by type or category, and how those incidents were detected the number of non-financial misconduct incidents recorded by incident type or category and the...

On 21 November 2024, Shabana Mahmood, the Secretary of State for Justice, stated that the sum would factor in expected inflation up to May 2027, when the subsequent review of the whiplash damages tariff is scheduled. In 2021, the Civil Liability Act brought in significant changes to the way motorists with minor whiplash from road traffic collisions pursue third-party insurance claims. It required claims to be submitted via a new digital portal instead of through the civil courts, and established a fresh schedule of damages for whiplash claims under the Act......

In a letter to MPs dated 19 November 2024, FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi said there was doubt about the scope of the Court of Appeal’s October 2024 judgment. As a consequence of that ruling, high street lenders collectively face potential redress of billions of pounds, after the court determined that all commission-bearing finance agreements must be fully disclosed to customers. Experts caution that the decision could produce wide-ranging effects in other markets, including insurance, with premium finance singled out as a concern......

On 18 November 2024, the High Court refused HCC International Insurance Co Plc’s bid to join the London law firm and Victoria Johns, a former banking solicitor, as additional parties to its fight with philanthropist Nicole Riedweg over her claim that an HCC‑insured surveyor overstated a property’s worth by roughly £2.5 million. The insurer said Forsters, which acted for Riedweg in the transaction, and Johns, called by the insurer the ‘driving force’ behind the acquisition, would share liability for any resulting loss if the court ruled in Riedweg’s favour. However, Judge James Brightwell held that HCC was not entitled to add Forsters and Johns to proceedings with contribution claims if it is ultimately later found liable. Statute permits a defendant to seek a contribution claim against further proposed parties only where they are liable for the same damage suffered by the...

More than 38,000 customers were caught up in the breach, which related to no claims bonus protection. This optional layer of insurance cover shields clients from forfeiting a reduced premium at renewal when they have to make a claim on their policy. ' Failing to disclose accurate details and to supply the NCB protection information and statement may have stopped customers from making an informed decision about buying the add-on and from comparing alternative offers available,' the antitrust regulator stated......

In her first Mansion House address, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves set out proposals to ease parts of the post-2008 crisis rulebook to steer more investment into the British economy. She argued, in remarks published ahead of delivery, that earlier reforms created a framework that tried to stamp out risk-taking, which she believes has gone too far and led to unintended outcomes that must now be put right. She outlined a new government plan to accelerate growth by adjusting rules across financial services and insurance, aiming to unlock private investment and revive capital markets. Reeves said the package of changes would strengthen growth and competitiveness through investment and reform, calling it the most pro-growth financial services programme since the financial crisis. She added that she has written to regulatory authorities, including the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA), the Prudential...

Global M& A insurance claims slumped by 21% in 2023 The insurer’s global transaction solutions arm reported it received 120 notifications for representations and warranties claims in 2023, a 21% decrease from 153 a year earlier, according to the unit. Representations and warranties—termed warranty and indemnity insurance in the UK—typically safeguard purchasers against sellers’ breaches of contractual guarantees in such deals......

In this issue: Types of insurance UK Regulation EU Regulation New and updated content Case trackers Key dates Daily and weekly news alerts Lex Talk®Insurance: a Lexis®Nexis community Types of insurance Cyber With scant historical data on large-scale cyber incidents, defining insurers’ exposure remains challenging, experts noted, urging firms to use a shared framework when describing what is among the sector’s most significant threats. See News Analysis: Insurers urge shared approach to define major cyber-events. Motor vehicle and road traffic accident Almost one in three young motorists have obtained bogus car insurance from criminals on social media, Aviva reported, advising teenagers and early adults to treat “too good to be true” offers with caution even as rising costs strain consumers. See News Analysis: Young drivers buying fake insurance, Aviva says. Warranty and...

On 11 November 2024, the insurer reported that three in ten of the 2,000 motorists aged 17 to 25 had obtained car cover from individuals unlawfully selling bogus or invalid policies on social media platforms—a practice known as ghost broking. The survey, carried out by Censuswide in October 2024, found that nearly nine in ten (89%) of young motorists who bought insurance online experienced a range of issues with their policy. These included one in six (17%) saying they had been stopped by the police for driving without cover, and nearly 50% stating their details were misrepresented on the policy, rendering it not valid. Katriona Cunningham, policy application fraud lead at Aviva, said it was ‘understandable’ that young drivers were......

On 7 November 2024, the Association of British Insurers ( ABI) and Lloyd’s of London issued joint guidance outlining the factors insurers should assess when crafting clear definitions and policy wording for an incident in which an organisation suffers a cyber-event—a breach or attack that leads to financial loss or damage. They explained that the framework acts as a reference for the market when deciding what qualifies as a major event. It sets out a breadth of considerations on attributing responsibility and pinpointing the causes of cyber-risks. Mervyn Skeet, the ABI’s director of general insurance policy, noted that the emerging and “incredibly complex nature of cyber-threats” presents a significant challenge for the sector......