Stephen Smith, 56, a UK-based art collector, has bought prints through MyArtBroker, a sales and management platform for secondary-market prints and editions, since 2024, when he purchased Echo by British abstract artist Bridget Riley for £7,500 ($10,300). He uses the platform’s instant valuation tool, finding it helpful because he’s overpaid when buying from galleries before. “It gives quite a good, accurate impression of the price for a specific print at that particular time,” he says. It’s notoriously difficult to know how much art should cost, because many galleries do not disclose prices and sales by galleries and dealers are rarely…
Author: Awais
Munich Re’s primary insurance unit ERGO aims to cut about 1,000 positions in Germany, partly as a result of its increased use of artificial intelligence. The cuts affect simple and repetitive tasks in telephony and claims processing, a spokesman said on Tuesday. They will take place over five years through the end of 2030, with ERGO saying there will be no forced redundancies during this time. Companies in the finance industry are increasingly using AI to speed up services and cut costs. Late last year, ING Groep NV said almost 1,000 positions are at risk in response to “digitalization, AI,…
It’s the rare policy question that unites Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and the Democratic-led Maryland government against President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California: How should health insurers use AI? Regulating artificial intelligence, especially its use by health insurers, is becoming a politically divisive topic, and it’s scrambling traditional partisan lines. Boosters, led by Trump, are not only pushing its integration into government, as in Medicare’s experiment using AI in prior authorization, but also trying to stop others from building curbs and guardrails. A December executive order seeks to preempt most state efforts to govern AI,…
Germany’s IG Metall has filed a criminal complaint against the manager of Tesla’s factory near Berlin, accusing him of “spreading false allegations,” the union said on Tuesday, in another sign of its souring relations with the U.S. automaker. The union said it had also applied to a labor court for a temporary injunction to prohibit Andre Thierig from further making the allegations. Tesla did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment. The matter relates to a criminal complaint that Tesla made last week against an IG Metall member for allegedly secretly recording a works council meeting at the…
AXIS Capital, the global specialty insurance and reinsurance underwriter, has put a new reporting line in place for its insurance-linked securities (ILS) division AXIS ILS, with Group Chief Underwriting Officer Dan Draper adding that to his responsibilities.Recently, AXIS Capital announced some senior leadership changes aligned with its planned succession and development process. Firstly, Ann Haugh, who took on the CEO of AXIS Re role in June 2022, has become Group Chief Operations Officer (COO), a new position at the company. As a result, AXIS Capital’s Group Chief Underwriting Officer Dan Draper has been given expanded responsibilities, including a new position…
The addition of 82 owned and affiliated clinics in Florida comes as Humana doubles down on its primary care portfolio.
The 2026 regular session of the Florida Legislature may not make significant changes to the state’s property insurance statutes. But it could become known as the “water safety” session that approved measures aimed at reducing drowning deaths in the state—bills that could impact liability litigation and insurance costs. Halfway through the session, one bill nearing a floor vote would mandate that rental properties with swimming pools be equipped with safety features. Senate Bill 658, which incorporated the similar SB 608, would require landlords or licensees of rental properties to comply with the same pool-safety standards already required for new residential…
Company just crossed a major revenue milestone with a 90% combined ratio
Three industry heavyweights are going big on specialty capacity
The European Union is not prepared for worsening climate change and should urgently step up its investments to protect people and infrastructure from mounting floods, wildfires and severe heatwaves, its independent advisers said on Tuesday. Climate change has made Europe the world’s fastest-warming continent, according to the World Meteorological Organization, driving more frequent and intense heatwaves, flooding, coastal destruction and storms. The economic damage to European infrastructure and buildings from weather and climate extremes is now 45 billion euros ($53.34 billion) per year, five times higher than in the 1980s, EU data show. While the EU has ambitious targets to…
Vanderbilt Minerals, which mines materials used in industrial products, filed for bankruptcy after its cash flow was overwhelmed by an increase in lawsuits that accuse the company of once selling items contaminated by asbestos. The firm, which denies that its products contained the cancer-causing substance, plans to hold an auction for its assets, according to a court filing Monday. The opening offer would be $50 million from Commodore Materials. Vanderbilt, in the documents, blamed its bankruptcy on more than 1,400 talc lawsuits. The Norwalk, Connecticut-based company spent $8 million on talc-related cases last year. The firm “was cash-flow positive absent…
France will release a tanker after hitting it with a multimillion-euro fine for flouting European sanctions on Russian oil, following its seizure in the Mediterranean Sea last month. The Grinch will leave French waters after “paying several millions of euros and three weeks of costly immobilization at Fos-sur-Mer,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a post on X Tuesday. He didn’t specify the exact amount of the fine. The French navy boarded the Grinch, which came from Murmansk in the Russian Arctic, as part of a global crackdown on shadow fleet ships used to export sanctioned crude. Moscow’s war…
When I reflect on the state of the Property & Casualty business today, two forces are reshaping the industry faster than any cycle I’ve seen in my career. Increasingly complex risks are driving demand for specialized protection solutions and talent. At the same time, rapid technological advancements, including AI, are transforming every step in the value chain. These trends are converging at a time when our industry is also facing a generational talent reset driven by an aging workforce, retirements and a shrinking early-career pipeline. While some may consider these headwinds, I see an opportunity to position our industry to…
Tesla Inc.’s robotaxis have been involved in over a dozen crashes in Austin since service began, according to reports the carmaker has made to regulators. The electric vehicle maker has said its nascent robotaxi business has been involved in 14 crash incidents in about eight months, according to data sent to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A federal order requires carmakers to report when automated driving systems are involved in certain crashes. Tesla launched its limited robotaxi service in Austin in June with about a dozen cars accompanied by human safety monitors, and has slowly increased the fleet. Its…