Western Financial Group saw its net income increase by 27 percent to $20.3 million in 2010 compared to 2009, with Earnings Per Share up by 9 percent. The High River, Alberta based company saw all business units showing positive results year over year, and Bank West reported its third profitable quarter in a row. Commissions [...]
Canadian Property and Casualty insurance company The Economical Insurance Group announced its 2010 year-end results, including a net income of $64.4 million, an increase of 167 percent from 2009. Economical says this increase is primarily due to improved underwriting results. Economical’s combined ratio decreased to 103.3 percent from 107.9 percent in 2009 and achieved a [...]
Equitable Life of Canada delivered a strong performance in 2010, achieving historic highs for sales and growth. Both the Company’s Individual and Group lines of business hit record sales levels, while the Savings and Retirement line of business achieved sales similar to its break-out results in 2009. For the first time in the Company’s history, [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. Top 5 International Crimes of 2010 Our number 5 crime takes us to Switzerland back in July of 2010, where movie director Roman Polanski was released by Swiss officials after they decided not to extradite him to the US for sex crimes relating to a 1978 encounter [...]
Several major catastrophes in 2010 resulted in substantial losses and an exceptionally high number of fatalities, according to Munich Re. A total of 950 natural catastrophes were recorded last year, nine-tenths of which were weather-related events like storms and floods. This total makes 2010 the year with the second-highest number of natural catastrophes since 1980, [...]
The second quarter of 2010 brought with it many insurance headlines – and challenges – in Canada and around the world. The following is an overview of what made headlines from April through June. In April, British Columbia’s Solicitor General and Minister of Public Safety (and also the Minister in charge of ICBC) resigned due [...]
As 2010 draws to a close, ILSTV will be taking a look back at the insurance news that made headlines this year. Today we’ll look at the first quarter of the year. The three months of 2010 were the worst ever for catastrophe losses, according to Willis Re. On January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake [...]
EGI Financial Holdings Inc. announced its results for the three and six-months ended June 30, 2010. Q2 Financial Highlights include: - Net income of $1.9 million, compared to $4.8 million in the second quarter of 2009 - Net income per fully diluted share of $0.15, compared to $0.38 in the second quarter of 2009 - [...]
CI Financial Corp., Canada’s third-largest investment funds company, reports its second-quarter profits rose to $89 million from $52.9 million as the company generated higher revenues and cut operating costs. Average assets under management increased to $63.5 billion from $53.7 billion last year, but retail assets were down from the first quarter, the Toronto wealth manager [...]
Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Services Group reported a 51 per cent drop in the second-quarter net profits to $707 million as earnings were hit by payouts for weather-related losses and the earthquake in Chile. This compares with a profit of $1.43 billion during the same period last year. The Zurich-based company says investment income fell [...]
Warren Buffett’s company reported a 40 per cent drop in second-quarter profit because the improvement at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s operating companies couldn’t overcome US$1.4 billion in paper losses on derivative contracts. Berkshire’s strong performances from its railroad, insurance and manufacturing businesses was overshadowed by the plummeting value of the Omaha company’s derivatives – many of [...]
Swiss Re Insurance Co. has reported a net profit of US$812 million for the second quarter despite payouts for two large-scale disasters. The company recorded a net loss of $342 million during the same period last year. Swiss Re says earnings per share were 2.56 Swiss francs compared to a loss per share of 1.13 [...]
French reinsurer SCOR says that thanks to a second quarter which illustrated the Group’s capacity to deliver a high level of recurring profitability with a net income of EUR 120 million (CAD$163 million) compared to EUR 91 million in the second quarter 2009 (i.e. +32%), it has recorded a net half-year income of EUR 156 million, compared [...]
Part-nationalized Lloyds Banking Group PLC reported that first-half net profit fell 92 per cent from a year ago, when it booked a big one-off gain, but revenue grew and bad loans were almost halved from a year ago. Lloyds, formed last year when Lloyds TSB took over Halifax/Bank of Scotland, said net profit was 596 [...]
The insurance giant AIG reported a US$538 million loss in the second quarter due to charges related to selling assets to repay the federal government bailout. Its adjusted results excluding the charges beat Wall Street expectations, and its shares rose almost three per cent in pre-market trading. Its insurance business showed improvement. American International Group [...]
Standard Life Financial Inc. reported in the quarter ended June 30, 2010, premiums and deposits grew 13% to $1.2 billion, underpinned by successful sales in its core markets. Net income amounted to $23.8 million, increasing year-to-date profit to $77.9 million (2009: $64.9 million). Standard Life Financial is the Canadian subsidiary of the UK-based long-term savings [...]
