Oklahoma men’s basketball’s offense wasn’t the only thing that caught fire in the Sooners’ game on Saturday, Feb. 14. A popcorn machine caught fire at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman during the first half of OU’s game against Georgia, sending fans sprinting and causing a delay to the action. No injuries were reported. The fire occurred in the upper concourse of the arena about four minutes into the game. Fans quickly cleared out from the adjacent sections. Some attendees exited the building altogether according to video shared on social media. Automated sprinklers extinguished the flames, according to News9. The Norman…
Author: Awais
Pinpoint Predictive, a risk assessment platform for property and casualty insurers, announced that its rating models have been approved for use in Ohio and Georgia, bringing its total number of approved states to nine. Insurers operating in Ohio and Georgia can integrate Pinpoint’s predictive models directly into their existing program frameworks for filed homeowners and personal auto rating plans. Pinpoint’s solutions include underwriting, ratemaking, claims and discovery. With approvals now spanning Ohio, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, South Carolina, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Mississippi, Pinpoint Predictive continues to expand its national footprint and support carriers seeking regulator-approved tools to strengthen underwriting…
The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered two Houston, Texas-based construction companies and their owners to reinstate and compensate two workers who were fired for raising asbestos concerns during repair of a hotel after Hurricane Beryl. The department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated a whistleblower complaint by the terminated employees of Rise Construction LLC, owned by Jivar Foty, and Niko Group LLC, owned by Jessica Foty. The two employees alleged they were fired after raising concerns to the owners about lack of training, asbestos certification, personal protective equipment, and illegal dumping of asbestos. OSHA found that the terminations were…
Tapco Underwriters, a North Carolina-based managing general agent, has new livery and a new name, 17 years after it was acquired by CRC Insurance Services. The MGA will now be known as CRC Tapco and will continue to focus on specialty and surplus lines, the Birmingham, Alabama-headquartered CRC Group said in a news release. “Tapco has always been part of the CRC family, and this rebrand allows us to fully embrace the power of that partnership,” said Keith Allred, president of CRC Tapco. Tapco was launched in 1983. It was acquired by CRC in 2009 and continues to work as…
Transaction offers 46% premium ahead of planned delisting
A category of insurance risk that hardly existed a little over a decade ago has morphed into a meaningful source of losses for the industry. Claims tied to SRCC — strikes, riots and civil commotion — are emerging as a growing headache for insurers as episodes of unrest increasingly lead to the destruction of property in Western democracies. Howden Re estimates that insured losses related to SRCC soared from negligible levels in 2013 to more than $8 billion between 2020 and 2024. SRCC losses are prone to huge swings between years, with single events often changing the landscape significantly. After…
Hiscox Re has announced the launch of Hiscox Capital Partners, which is set to bring together under a single structure all the capital partnership activity the organisation has managed for nearly two decades, including third-party capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS).At the same time, Hiscox Re & ILS, the reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) unit within Hiscox Group, has now been rebranded as Hiscox Re. According to the firm, the rebranding marks a clearer and more streamlined presentation of the firm’s product offering to cedants, brokers, institutional investors and re/insurance partners. Hiscox Re is comprised of Hiscox Group’s reinsurance business and…
ALKEME Insurance has signed a $27.7 million naming rights partnership with the Arizona Athletics and Arizona Sports Enterprises to rename the McKale Center at the McKale Center at ALKEME Arena. The parties are calling the 15-year agreement the largest publicly known arena naming rights partnership in the Big 12. The McKale Memorial Center has served as a national stage for championship competitions and the home of the famed Wildcats. Through the partnership, Arizona Athletics and ALKEME will collaborate with the university’s Eller College of Management to develop entrepreneurship and leadership programming with initiatives that include “Shark Tank”-style leadership experiences, mentorship…
Rhode Island officials said that three people, including the suspected gunman, are dead, and three others were injured in a shooting during a high school hockey game at a Pawtucket arena on Monday afternoon. Police said the shooting appears to have happened after a family dispute. Two members of the shooting suspect’s family and a friend were killed before the shooter fatally shot himself, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said. “A good Samaritan stepped in and interjected in the scene, and that’s probably what led to a swift end of this tragic event,” Goncalves said at a news conference. She…
HUB International Hires Hetrick as VP, Private Client Risk Advisor Brandon Hetrick Hub International Limited named Brandon Hetrick vice president, private client risk advisor in Newport Beach, California. Hetrick has 25 years of insurance experience. Before joining HUB, Hetrick spent more than a decade with an insurance brokerage firm. Earlier in his career, he spent nearly 11 years with a national insurance carrier, where he developed experience across all insurance lines with an emphasis on personal insurance and family protection planning. Hub is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. WSRB President & CEO Newman to Retire The Board of Directors of Washington…
The wildfires, which swept through Maui on August 8, 2023, destroyed much of the historic town of Lahaina. The Hawaiian Electric Companies’ Substation 34, its warehouse and office, and transmission and distribution infrastructure in the Lahaina area were wiped out. Fire temperatures allegedly exceeded 1,800°F — more than eight times the maximum rating for the substation equipment. Experts retained by the plaintiffs concluded that returning the equipment to service could risk “arching, sparks, and wildfire.”
Investors in catastrophe bonds are seeing a decline in risk premia to levels not seen since before Hurricane Ian hit Florida in 2022, as a surge in fresh capital drives down potential returns. That’s according to an analysis by reinsurer Swiss Re, which published its assessment of the state of the market for insurance-linked securities on Monday. “We have seen capital flow into the market that has resulted in spread tightening,” Andy Palmer, who oversees ILS structuring for Europe and Asia at Swiss Re, told Bloomberg News. “Looking ahead, there are sizeable amounts of maturities upcoming – approximately $11 billion…
A federal safety agency investigating an August blast at a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh that left two workers dead said it found a series of incomplete, outdated or inadequate procedures and practices that “exposed” employees to the explosion, which happened as workers were flushing a gas valve. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company a total of $118,214 and issued 10 citations. The blast also injured 11 others, including contractors, according to the Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency investigating the explosion. Before the August blast, Clairton Coke Works had a history of accidents and explosions, and…
A category of insurance risk that hardly existed a little over a decade ago has morphed into a meaningful source of losses for the industry. Claims tied to SRCC — strikes, riots and civil commotion — are emerging as a growing headache for insurers as episodes of unrest increasingly lead to the destruction of property in Western democracies. Howden Re estimates that insured losses related to SRCC soared from negligible levels in 2013 to more than $8 billion between 2020 and 2024. SRCC losses are prone to huge swings between years, with single events often changing the landscape significantly. After…