News
Chubb to serve as lead underwriter for DFC's $20bn Maritime Reinsurance plan - Reinsurance News
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has revealed that Chubb will serve as the lead partner for its $20 billion Maritime
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has revealed that Chubb will serve as the lead partner for its $20 billion Maritime Reinsurance Plan, aimed at restoring commercial shipping in the Gulf and helping to restart energy and trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
DFC’s reinsurance facility, announced earlier this week, will insure losses up to approximately $20 billion on a rolling basis.
As we covered back then, this revolving insurance offering will apply only to vessels that meet eligibility criteria, with insurance focusing on Hull & Machinery and Cargo to start.
DFC has since named Chubb, a global leader in Property & Casualty insurance, including Political Risk and Maritime insurance, as the lead underwriter issuing policies for eligible vessels.
“Together, DFC and Chubb have identified several American insurance companies to provide reinsurance policies behind Chubb and alongside DFC to expand market capacity. Additional reinsurance partners may be announced in the coming days,” DFC said.
Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey Q4 2025 - WTW
U.S. commercial insurance rates increased 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2025, continuing the gradual moderation from the previous two quarters (3.8% in Q2 and Q3 2025), according to the latest findings from WTW's Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey (CLIPS).
The survey compares premiums for policies underwritten in a given quarter compared with the same coverage lines in the prior year, providing a year-over-year perspective. Carriers reported an aggregate price increase of 2.9% in Q4 2025, down from 5.6% in Q4 2024.
“ Commercial insurance pricing continued to moderate in the fourth quarter, reflecting a more stable market.”
“Commercial insurance pricing continued to moderate in the fourth quarter, reflecting a more stable market,” said Yi Jing, senior director, Insurance Consulting and Technology (ICT), WTW. “While some lines continue to see increases, others are flattening or declining, highlighting a more measured approach across the market.”
Financial Results
P/C Statutory Results: The Highs and The Lows
A new report from S&P Global Market Intelligence is filled with information about record line-of-business loss ratios achieved in 2025—with some property/casualty lines coming in at record lows, and others reaching record high levels.
Not surprisingly, the highs occurred for commercial liability insurance lines. The lows were in personal lines, including the wildfire-impacted homeowners line, which benefited from the absence of landfalling U.S. hurricanes last year.
Ultimately, the lows outweighed the highs, according to the firm’s report on P/C insurance statutory financial results, “Spectacular P&C statutory profitability may prove fleeting.” But the real story of last year’s record results wasn’t personal vs. commercial lines but rather property vs. casualty, S&P GMI researchers pointed out in the report. FULL ARTICLE
Claims
CARFAi and RAVIN AI Join Forces to Set a New Global Standard in Vehicle Condition Verification - Insurtech Israel News
CARFAi, the innovator behind the automotive condition verification and standardization ecosystem, and RAVIN AI, a global leader in vehicle damage inspections, today announced a strategic partnership designed to transform how vehicle health is assessed, valued, and shared.
This collaboration addresses a critical gap in the automotive industry: the lack of a standardized, objective “source of truth” regarding vehicle condition. Through this partnership, the RAVIN inspection tool will now feed directly into the CARFAi platform. This integration allows for the automatic generation of CARFAi’s Verified Condition Score, alongside detailed damage detection and precise cost breakdowns.
By combining RAVIN’s computer vision technology—trusted by the world’s largest insurance carriers and fleet operators—with CARFAi’s standardization platform, the two companies are replacing subjective guesswork with data-driven confidence.
“At CARFAi, our mission is to make the car speak for itself,” said Robert Friese, CEO of CARFAi. “In the current market, listings are static and trust is fragile. By integrating RAVIN’s industrial-grade AI into our ecosystem, we are generating a Verified Condition Score that buyers, lenders, and dealers can trust implicitly. We aren’t just creating a report; we are turning every vehicle into a fully transparent, marketable asset.”
The partnership unlocks a suite of next-generation features for dealerships, marketplaces, and lenders, including:
- Verified Condition Scores: An objective rating system based on comprehensive data.
- Financial Clarity: Automated damage detection paired with accurate cost-of-repair breakdowns.
- Interactive Experience: Voice-enabled reports that allow users to interact with the vehicle data.
- Universal Shareability: Reports designed to be shared instantly across marketplaces, dealer websites, and lending platforms.
Research
4 Hidden costs of legacy insurance technology
A new study finds that outdated technology exposes insurance firms to up to $5 million in annual hidden costs and 900 hours in lost productivity.
AI and automation may be top of mind for business technologists in 2026, but some insurance organizations continue to struggle with legacy technology, according to fresh research commissioned by INTX Insurance Software and conducted by RSM.
Roughly three out of four respondents to the study indicated their organizations continue to lean on dated systems to manage critical workflows, a practice that creates "measurable financial strain across implementation, ongoing support, workflow management, and system upgrades," according to researchers. Just over half of respondents reported that policy administration still involves some degree of manual processing.
The study ultimately determined that outdated technology exposes insurance firms to up to $5 million in annual hidden costs and 900 hours in lost productivity.
"These inefficiencies are no longer abstract," Lara Colestock, RSM's director of Human-Centered Design, said in an email to PropertyCasualty360. "Outdated systems are creating real economic drag by slowing operations, increasing costs, and limiting insurers' ability to adapt. The study reinforced that it's a strategic necessity to modernize core systems for efficiency, agility, and long‑term competitiveness."
INTX CEO Rob Lewis added that some insurance leaders have accepted lost efficiency as the cost of doing business.
Commentary/Opinion
Improving Understanding of Risk Appetite
Many insurance companies struggle to articulate and operationalize a precise appetite for risk. When underwriting guidelines lack clarity, producers and agents lack context for submission decisions. As a result, misaligned risks crowd pipelines and slow quoting timelines, reducing overall productivity. With competitive pressures rising across property and casualty (P&C) lines, improving the precision of risk intake is becoming essential.
Insurers embedding artificial intelligence (AI) into core functions, like underwriting and intake, can realize efficiency gains of more than 30%, primarily through reduced manual workload and better decision flows, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) research.
WHY TRADITIONAL APPETITE COMMUNICATION FALLS SHORT
Like it or not, communicating appetite through static documents, such as PDFs, spreadsheets, or email blasts, is still the norm. These formats are often misplaced, degrade quickly, and offer little real-time clarity. Agents often submit risks with incomplete information or insight into what aligns with underwriting goals, and underwriting teams then spend valuable time reviewing misaligned leads.
Further, while 88% of insurers use AI in at least one business function, few have scaled predictive decision-making tools enterprise-wide, according to a 2025 McKinsey & Company survey. This gap between experimentation and enterprise adoption presents an opportunity for first movers to gain a strategic edge. READ On
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
Gen Digital: Acquisition Of Trellis Expands AI-Powered Insurance Capabilities In Engine Marketplace
Gen Digital announced it has acquired Trellis, a technology-driven platform that simplifies and automates insurance shopping, to expand the insurance capabilities of its Engine financial wellness marketplace.
Trellis’ technology will be integrated into Engine by Gen, an embedded marketplace platform that matches consumers with personalized financial product recommendations in real time. The platform connects users with financial services such as credit, savings, loans, and insurance through partnerships embedded within mobile apps, websites, and other digital consumer touchpoints.
The acquisition adds Trellis’ AI-driven insurance matching technology to the platform, enhancing Gen’s ability to deliver personalized insurance recommendations to consumers through its partner ecosystem. The move addresses a fragmented insurance purchasing process that often requires consumers to navigate multiple carriers, pricing models, and forms with limited transparency.
Trellis operates the Savvy platform, which uses machine learning models, real-time marketplace bidding, and conversational AI to match consumers with insurance providers. The technology aims to reduce friction in the insurance shopping process and help consumers make more informed purchasing decisions.
State News
Second Circuit vacates GEICO win in no-fault kickback fight
GEICO just lost a major appeals court ruling that could limit how insurers fight no-fault fraud in New York.
The Second Circuit on March 10, 2026, vacated a lower court judgment that had allowed GEICO to deny no-fault insurance payments to a group of acupuncture businesses accused of running a patient referral kickback scheme. The decision, rooted in a pivotal answer from the New York Court of Appeals, narrows the grounds on which insurers can refuse to reimburse healthcare providers under the state's no-fault system.
The case traces back to a lawsuit GEICO filed against Igor Mayzenberg and several acupuncture businesses he owned, including Mingmen Acupuncture, P.C., Laogong Acupuncture, P.C., and Sanli Acupuncture, P.C. GEICO alleged that the defendants paid third parties to steer patients with no-fault insurance coverage to Mingmen, which then treated the patients and billed GEICO for the services. The insurer characterized the payments as kickbacks.
To justify denying reimbursement, GEICO pointed to a New York insurance regulation known as the Eligibility Regulation, codified at 11 N.Y.C.R.R. § 65-3.16(a)(12). That provision allows an insurer to withhold no-fault payments when a healthcare provider fails to meet any applicable state or local licensing requirement necessary to perform medical services in New York. GEICO's argument was straightforward: by paying for patient referrals in violation of New York's professional conduct rules, the Mayzenberg businesses had effectively failed to meet a licensing requirement, and GEICO should not have to pay.
People
Marsh names Nick Studer CEO of Marsh Risk, creates enterprise client role for South
Global insurance broker Marsh has announced senior leadership changes, appointing Nick Studer (pictured) as president and CEO of Marsh Risk and naming Martin South as the firm’s new chief client officer.
The changes, effective April 1, will see Studer succeed South in leading Marsh Risk. South will move into an enterprise-wide role focused on strengthening client relationships across the company’s businesses. Both executives will remain members of the firm’s executive committee and report to Marsh president and CEO John Doyle.
Doyle said the appointments are intended to support the company’s long-term growth ambitions.
“Our vision is to make Marsh the most impactful professional services firm in the world,” Doyle said in a statement. “These appointments will help us accelerate growth, increase our agility, unlock additional value for our clients, and realise our vision.”
Leadership transition at Marsh Risk
Studer joins the role from Oliver Wyman, the management consulting arm of Marsh, where he has served as president and CEO since 2021. During his tenure, Doyle said the consultancy experienced significant growth
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