S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of insurance news stories and more published throughout the week. Please note that some entries have links to third-party sources that may require a subscription.
Hong Kong grants first virtual general insurance license and other regulatory developments
* Hong Kong's Insurance Authority gave its first virtual general license to Avo Insurance, the South China Morning Post reported. Avo Insurance will sell its products online without the use of agents or brokers.
* The Thai General Insurance Association and the General Insurance Association of Japan signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on an information-exchange program to boost each other's operations and to promote the general insurance sector in Thailand and Japan, Krungthep Turakij reported.
* The Thai government is requiring foreigners in the "risky" over-50 age group to present proof of health insurance when applying for a Thai long-term non-immigrant visa, Reuters reported, citing Sathit Pitutecha, deputy minister of public health. The rule takes effect at the end of October.
* IFFCO-TOKIO General Insurance Co. Ltd. approached India's Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority over its alleged role in the fraud involving Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd., The Economic Times reported. IFFCO-TOKIO told the regulator it has been falsely implicated in the fraud involving the bank. It is alleged that the insurer hired a close relative of Parvez Ahmed Nengroo, the former chairman of Jammu & Kashmir Bank, in lieu of the bank entering into a bancassurance deal with the insurer.
Catastrophe updates
* The Insurance Council of Australia declared a bushfire catastrophe declaration for the area around the northern New South Wales community of Rappville and fires in the Busby Flat and Drake areas, Reinsurance News reported. The two fires, at Drake and at Busby Flat near Rappville, had joined to form a large blaze and have already consumed 115,000 hectares and reports say that as many as 30 homes being either destroyed or severely damaged.
* The marine hull market could face up to US$70 million in losses following a tanker explosion in South Korea, The Insurance Insider reported. It is unclear if the damage would constitute a total loss, but insurers will be liable for more than US$70 million in payment if it does, according to the report.
In other news
* Nippon Life Insurance Co. is open to inorganic growth in the Indian mutual fund industry, Moneycontrol reported, citing Minoru Kimura, executive officer and head of Asia Pacific for Nippon Life Insurance. The insurer is open to more acquisitions in the country's mutual fund industry if a good opportunity presents itself but Kimura added that the Japanese insurer would not make an acquisition for the sake of buying a company.
* AIA Insurance Lanka PLC has delisted from the Colombo Stock Exchange, effective Oct. 2. The company's license to perform insurance business will remain unaffected by the delisting.
* The Philippines' Armed Forces and Police General Insurance Corp. ceased operations as a nonlife insurance firm as the business is no longer financially viable, BusinessWorld reported. AFPGen has voluntarily surrendered its license to sell nonlife insurance and has applied for a servicing license instead.
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