Tag Archives: Zurich

Volcanic Eruption Disrupts Airlines and Business Again

Posted on by

The Grimsvotn volcano, Iceland’s most active, began erupting Saturday, sending large plumes of ash into the atmosphere and halting air traffic in the region. As of this morning, Iceland’s main airport in Reykjavik remained closed while airlines and airports across Europe brace for possible disruptions. This brings back unpleasant memories of last year’s volcanic eruption as Europe clings to hope that the effect will not be nearly as dreadful.

Officials appeared to be responding to the ash with a radically different approach than last year, when European aviation authorities were sharply criticized for closing large swathes of airspace in response to the April 2010 eruption of another Icelandic volcano. Many airlines said authorities overestimated the danger to planes from the abrasive ash, and overreacted by closing airspace for five days. Thousands of flights were grounded, airlines lost millions of dollars and millions of travelers were stranded, many sleeping on airport floors across northern Europe.

Though meteorological officials predicted the ash to miss the European mainland, recent news reports claim that the Civil Aviation Authority expects disruption to UK flights.

We here at the Monitor followed last year’s eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano very closely, posting about it’s amazing power with pics and video, about airports closing and how it was one of the top 10 disasters of the past decade, according to Zurich.

Stay tuned as we continue to post about Grimsvotn’s most powerful eruption in 100 years and its effects on travel and business. And visit The Atlantic for some amazing images of the eruption.

UPDATE: Zurich Talks “Ring of Fire” at RIMS 2011

Posted on by

(This post now include a video of the presentation given at RIMS 2011–definitely worth a view)

Zurich held a press conference this morning regarding a topic that has been in recent news more time than we would like — earthquakes. In “Epicenter Pacific Coast,” three CEOs from Zurich and one geologist from Simon Fraser University discussed the risk of a major earthquake in the United States and what can be done to prepare for such an event.

Mike Kerner, CEO of Zurich Global Corporate in North America, stressed the importance that individuals and companies in the States know:

  • Their exposures, and all of them
  • Are informed of risk engineering
  • Acknowledge that traditional policies may not cover all losses
  • What you can’t mitigate, insure
  • Understand specific policy terms (for example, the definition of “tsunami”)

Brent Ward, quaternary geologist professor, discussed the “ring of fire” that is known for being an earthquake hotspot — approximately 90% of all earthquakes occur in the ring of fire.

Ward stated that the Pacific Northwest, which lies within the ring of fire zone, has a similar configuration as that of Japan and Chile, where two of the worst earthquakes in history have recently struck.

buy bactroban online sinusys.com/email/img/jpg/bactroban.html no prescription pharmacy

“On average, a major earthquake of 9.0 magnitude or greater only happens every 500 to 600 years in the United States, but when it happens, it’s going to be bad,” Ward said.

Following Ward, Mike Foley, CEO of Zurich North America Commercial, mentioned the frequency with which the world has experienced horrific natural disasters, especially in the populated ring of fire area. “Four of the five costliest quakes in the past 30 years occurred in the last 13 months along the ring of fire,” Foley said.

buy aricept online sinusys.com/email/img/jpg/aricept.html no prescription pharmacy

“While we can’t predict, we can prepare.”

The Top 25 Property/Casualty Insurance Writers

Posted on by

No, neither Johnathan Franzen nor myself made the list. We’re talking about the companies that wrote the most business in 2010. Here’s the full list of the top 25 U.S. carriers in terms of net premiums written, according to AM Best.

1. State Farm Group—$50,808,635
2. Allstate Insurance Group—$24,796,656
3. Liberty Mutual Insurance Cos.—$21,483,996
4. Berkshire Hathaway Insurance—$21,358,316
5. Travelers Group—$20,594,458
6. American International Group—$19,687,720
7. Nationwide Group—$14,489,531
8. Progressive Insurance Group—$14,476,676
9. Farmers Insurance Group—$14,129,512
10. USAA Group—$10,679,414
11. Hartford Insurance Group—$9,688,760
12. Chubb Group of Insurance Cos.—$8,927,736
13. CNA Insurance Cos.—$6,188,618
14. American Family Insurance Group—$5,324,290
15. Allianz of America—$4,666,301
16. Auto-Owners Insurance Group—$4,485,442
17. Munich-America Holding Corp.—$4,413,834
18. Zurich Financial Services NA Group—$4,400,123
19. Erie Insurance Group—$4,019,273
20. Ace INA Group—$3,705,475
21. Transatlantic Holdings Inc. Group—$3,418,020
22. W.R. Berkley Group—$3,392,330
23. The Hanover Insurance Group Property & Casualty Cos.—$3,053,508
24. MetLife Auto & Home Group—$2,983,236
25. Cincinnati Insurance Cos.—$2,965,462

Managing Risk at the North Pole

Posted on by

It looks like Santa has been busy trying to improve his risk management this year. There are a lot of threats and just like all companies, Santa’s Workshop is not immune to new-age concerns. Given his giant list of who is naughty and who is nice, for example, he fears that a security breach that exposes his billions of person records could bring crippling lawsuits.

Santa Claus has announced the appointment of a Christmas Risk Officer (CRO) as part of a coordinated plan to maintain resilience at Grotto SE, the North Pole based toy manufacturing plant, as well as Claus’ flying sledge-based global distribution facility.

buy lasix online medilaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/jpg/lasix.html no prescription pharmacy

The new CRO, Mrs Santa Claus, is believed to be unhappy about the appointment but accepts that someone has to do it if clients’ confidence in Christmas is to be retained.

Grotto insiders told lloyds.com that the move to appoint a CRO was prompted by the Icelandic ash cloud that caused massive business interruption problems earlier this year, particularly for North European businesses. Sources also say that, in line with other big company CEOs, Santa Claus is also increasingly concerned about linked risks to do with brand and reputation, as well data security.

buy biaxin online medilaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/jpg/biaxin.html no prescription pharmacy

Hopefully this, as well as other new risk management initiatives from the Clauses, will help ensure you all get your toys, TVs and tubesocks this year.

Happy holidays.