News
Wall Street Is Gaining Access to New Catastrophe Models to Help Predict Wars
Wall Street Is Gaining Access to New Catastrophe Models to Help Predict Wars
As Wall Street races to incorporate war into its risk scenarios, the same people modeling natural catastrophes are now adapting their methodology to help investors, banks and insurers predict military conflicts.
Since 2008, the number of countries engaged in external conflicts has nearly doubled to just over 100, while the economic impact of violence now stands at almost $22 trillion, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace. That’s equivalent to more than 10% of the world’s gross domestic product. CONTINUES
E‑bike crashes, injuries highlight complex liability questions
Lawmakers and insurers face growing questions surrounding high-powered bikes that blur the line between bicycles and motorcycles.
E-bike injuries have soared more than 300 percent since 2019, according to the American College of Surgeons.
As these crashes and injuries climb nationwide, a California case involving a teenage rider and a severely injured pedestrian is highlighting the legal and financial risks individuals and families may face.
Prosecutors say a 14-year-old riding a high-powered electric motorbike struck an 81-year-old man near an Orange County high school, leading to felony charges against the boy's mother, according to the Los Angeles Times. Prosecutors claim the teen had been doing "wheelies" in the middle of the road when the collision occurred and that the mother had previously been warned about the dangers and legal implications of allowing her son to operate the vehicle.
The case comes as communities across the United States contend with a sharp increase in e-bike crashes, injuries and fatalities. According to research published in JAMA Surgery, e-bike injuries nationwide rose from approximately 1,600 in 2018 to 23,000 in 2022, while cities and lawmakers are increasingly debating registration requirements, speed limits and other regulations aimed at addressing safety concerns, The Guardian has reported.
State News
California home insurance prices set to spike 16% in 2026, leading the entire nation as prices surge
California home insurance premiums are set to rise by 16% in 2026, leading the way as the largest spike in the entire country.
The jump in home insurance prices in the Golden State are more than five times what residents in states like Texas and Florida are expected to see.
Texas is set to increase their insurance prices by 3% and Florida by 2%, while some states like New York and Maine are expected to see the same or cheaper costs (0% and -1%, respectively) according to Jonathan Lansner of the OC Register.
California's massive increase is largely due to rising property damage, with fires in Los Angeles accounting for $61.8 billion in damages in 2025 according to Climate Central.
Despite the 16% spike, California only ranks 21st in average home insurance premium at $2843.
Telematics, Driving & Insurance
Mobility Evolution Transforms Commercial Insurance
The mobility landscape is evolving rapidly – once defined by individual vehicle ownership and predictable risk models, mobility now includes electric vehicle (EV) fleets, autonomous driving systems, shared mobility platforms and micromobility solutions.
Driven by technological innovation, sustainability mandates and shifting consumer behavior, this transformation is reshaping transportation risk across industries and geographies.
For commercial insurers, these changes demand a rethink of traditional commercial auto insurance, spanning underwriting, pricing, liability allocation and risk management while increasing the need for data-driven decision-making.READ ON
AI in Insurance
"Only an insurance product built with AI can truly insure AI" | Ctech
Adina Eckstein, COO of Lemonade, said at Calcalist and Google’s AI Week that 98% of the company’s policies are sold using artificial intelligence and more than 60% of claims are handled by it. On the collaboration with Tesla: “Usually, insurance is about a person. Here, I insure software.”
"Only an insurance product built with AI can truly insure AI"
"The layoff crisis is affecting us less. We have been built around AI since our founding a decade ago," said Adina Eckstein, COO of Lemonade, during a conversation held as part of Calcalist and Google’s AI Week. According to her, "These technologies are accelerating us, not slowing us down. SaaS companies, companies that sell software subscriptions, are being affected. Lemonade is not a software company; it is a technology company that uses technology to build insurance products."
"The insurance industry is worth trillions of dollars, and it doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon," Eckstein added. "I don't think a group of developers can simply come along and build an insurance company, because the industry requires billions of dollars in capital, regulatory compliance, guarantees, and more. Beyond that, we are a growing company. We are growing by more than 30%, we expect to grow even faster next year, and we have the opportunity to continue growing alongside our existing employees while helping them become even more productive."
Sixfold introduces AI underwriter to support insurance underwriting decisions
Sixfold, a provider of artificial intelligence solutions for the insurance industry, has announced the launch of its AI Underwriter, a new technology platform designed to assist insurers with underwriting analysis, risk assessment and decision support throughout the submission process.
The launch follows Sixfold’s $30 million Series B funding round announced earlier this year, which the company said would help accelerate development of the AI Underwriter.
Sixfold describes the platform as an underwriting agent capable of retaining knowledge from previous submissions, broker interactions and underwriting decisions while continuously learning from each insurer’s unique approach to risk selection.
According to Sixfold, the AI Underwriter has been developed through three years of collaboration with major insurers and combines a broad foundation of underwriting expertise with carrier-specific intelligence. The company says the platform is designed to understand an insurer’s underwriting appetite, portfolio strategy and internal guidelines, becoming increasingly tailored to that organisation over time.
Sixfold explains that when a submission is received, the AI Underwriter gathers and standardises relevant information, identifies missing data, evaluates appetite alignment and portfolio suitability, and applies insights gained from previous underwriting activity.
OpenAI-backed start-up targets insurance processes
Poetic, an artificial intelligence start-up, with $50 million in funding has revealed its intention to help businesses streamline complex tasks, including insurance underwriting.
American International Group, the international insurer with offices in Bermuda, has used the company’s products successfully, Poetic said in a press release.
OpenAI, Kleiner Perkins and veteran tech investor Peter Thiel's Founders Fund have also backed Poetic, the company announced. The company is now valued at $500 million.
Poetic said that at AIG, its technology produced “99-plus per cent accuracy on a complex, multi-hour process that previously required significant manual effort”.
Poetic was founded by Markie Wagner, who previously launched an AI consultancy called Delphi Labs and worked on machine learning at Google and Waymo.
Ms Wagner said: “We built a new kind of software that learns like AI but runs like code, so the hardest work in your business finally gets done reliably, allowing your business to evolve faster and operate at a scale that was previously impossible.”
APRIL makes ChatGPT a new distribution channel for insurance
APRIL announces the launch of its APRIL Moto application within OpenAI's ChatGPT, becoming one of the first insurance providers to offer access to a personalised insurance quote directly through a conversation with artificial intelligence.
This innovation marks a new chapter in insurance distribution. Users can now obtain a personalised insurance quote simply by interacting with ChatGPT, without having to complete complex forms or follow a traditional purchasing journey.
The APRIL Moto application engages users in a conversation, gathers details about their vehicle, personal circumstances, and cover needs, then connects in real time to APRIL Moto's pricing engines to generate a personalised quote tailored to their individual requirements. Users can then continue their journey and complete their purchase in just a few clicks.
While most conversational experiences today are limited to providing information or indicative estimates, the APRIL Moto application delivers a genuine insurance quote based on real underwriting conditions.
Predict & Prevent
Liberty and ICEYE team on parametric wildfire insurance using satellite data - Artemis.bm
Liberty and ICEYE, a provider of satellite data and services to inform decision-making and analysis, have partnered together to launch a new parametric wildfire insurance solution that uses satellite data to assess building-level damage.
The launch of this solution from both Liberty and ICEYE comes as wildfire risk continues to increase in frequency and severity, which ultimately impacts communities and drives significant economic losses.
Moreover, Liberty’s remotely sensed parametric property wildfire solution, facilitates a swift response by granting immediate access to liquidity during critical times.
“Following a wildfire event, SAR imagery is combined with detailed property footprint data and advanced automated machine learning algorithms to deliver an objective, building-level damage assessment. Each insured property is classified against predefined criteria as either “destroyed” or “undamaged,” with results that could be delivered within hours,” Liberty and ICEYE explained
Announcements
Willis unveils new technology to counter existential risk to property insurance from climate change volatility
Willis, a WTW business (NASDAQ: WTW), today unveiled a new version of its Climate Diagnostic model to help risk managers better understand and respond to climate-driven volatility affecting property insurance markets.
Embedded within WTW’s Risk IQ platform, Climate Diagnostic is a climate risk technology capable of predicting the current and future impact of floods, windstorms and other material climate threats on an organisation’s assets, business activities and supply chain.
Peter Carter, Head of Climate Practice at Willis, said: “The volatility and frequency of climate hazards are increasing. Embedding Climate Diagnostic in broking workflows and engineering surveys sets a new industry standard, with clients benefiting from a built-in scan of the risk against ongoing climate change volatility.”
Commentary/Opinion
From reinsurance to structured credit: The financial products you didn’t know Bitcoin was powering
Everyone knows about the ETFs, but almost nobody knows about the dozens of obscure institutional products being built around Bitcoin while the funds soak up all the attention, from a $40 million insurance reserve in Barbados to an S&P-rated bond deal sold to Wall Street investors by Jefferies.
The ETFs answered only one question, which was how ordinary investors and institutions could own Bitcoin inside a regulated wrapper. The products in this article answer a different, and arguably bigger one: what can you actually do with Bitcoin once you own it?
The answer is: the same things finance has always done with US Treasuries and gold. You can pledge it to borrow money, post it as margin for trades, hold it as the reserve behind an insurance policy, or build a corporate balance sheet on top of it.
Bitcoin is now being tested for the same job, and the early results explain why some of the biggest players in this market really, truly don't care if the price goes up or down.
Insurance reserves, consumer credit, and the very first rated Bitcoin bond
Recommended Events
ITC Vegas | Horizon of Possibilities
ITC Vegas September 29, 2026 - October 1, 2026
The largest insurance innovation event in the world - Predict, Prepare, Progress
From the shore, the ocean can appear calm. Yet, under the surface, tectonic plates shift, pressure builds, and currents redirect—long before we detect movement. That’s insurance right now. Climate, technology, regulation, and human behavior are reshaping risk in real time. Change isn’t coming; it’s already here. The real question is how we move forward.
We set our sights on the horizon and turn insight into action.