Morning Briefing - June 10, 2015

Airline industry will struggle to screen pilots for mental health issues... Insurers welcome Canada's financial literacy program... New Zealand insurers face higher penalties for breaching fairness rules... Lloyds chair visits Crawford & Co...

Insurance News

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Airline industry will struggle to screen pilots for mental health issues
The airline industry said this week that screening of pilots for mental health issues is difficult to implement. Speaking in the wake of the Germanwings air disaster the International Air Transport Association director general Tony Tyler said that any measures must be designed to avoid stigmatising mental health and providing support for any pilots found to be suffering. Reuters reports that he said penalizing sufferers would result in them staying “under the radar”. Meanwhile Christopher Mueller the CEO of Malaysia Airlines said that there is a limit to what doctors can do to spot signs of ill-health and urged the airline community to do more to help by spotting potential issues with co-workers.
 
Insurers welcome Canada’s financial literacy program
A scheme designed to help Canadians stay on top of finances by offering financial literacy advice across multiple platforms has been praised by the country’s life and health insurance industry. The newly announced national financial literacy strategy will give Canadians “the knowledge, skills and confidence to make responsible financial decisions," said Frank Swedlove, President and CEO of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association. The strategy implements many recommendations of a task force chaired by former Sun Life CEO Donald Stewart.
 
New Zealand insurers face higher penalties for breaching fairness rules
Insurers in New Zealand will be hit with tougher penalties as part of the industry’s self-regulation of a code of fair conduct.  The Insurance Council of New Zealand has announced that the maximum fine will now be NZ$100,000 (U$71,000) for a breach of the code. However a lawyer has questioned whether there is validity in imposing larger fines when the code is routinely disputed in law courts. Andrew Hooker says the increased fine is just a “light tap” for breaches.
 
Lloyds chair visits Crawford & Co
Crawford & Company recently hosted John Nelson, chairman of Lloyd's -at its Atlanta office. Nelson was in the city as part of his most recent visit to the United States. He received a detailed briefing on the Crawford’s strategy and operations, met with the CEO and other senior executives and toured the firm’s centralized global data tracking and visualization system for claims management. Crawford has a dedicated Lloyd's and London market team with an in-depth understanding of the market and first-hand experience of working within it. The team's primary role is to manage Crawford relationships with the market on a global basis.
 

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