ACE, Chubb shareholders approve merger
The shareholders of ACE Limited have voted to approve the company’s aim to acquire The Chubb Corporation with 98 per cent in favor of most of each agenda item at a special meeting Thursday. The proposals included the change of name to Chubb Limited.
Meanwhile Chubb’s shareholders have also agreed the deal at their special meeting Thursday and also received a 98 per cent approval for the merger.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
Auto insurance sector could shrink by 60 per cent says study
A decline in accident frequency due to safer vehicles and the adoption of autonomous vehicles could shrink the US personal auto insurance sector by 60 percent within 25 years, according to KPMG. Its new report
Marketplace of Change: Automobile Insurance in the Era of Autonomous Vehicles estimates that accident frequency will be down 80 per cent by 2040 which could mean dramatically lower premiums and loss costs although the cost per accident is forecast to rise from U$14,000 currently to approximately $35,000. For commercial lines brokers there could be good news though: “Commercial lines could take a larger share, as the marketplace moves towards car sharing and mobility on demand services,” said Alex Bell, managing director in KPMG’s CIO Advisory practice. “As the vehicle makes more decisions, the potential liability of the software developer and manufacturer will increase too. In addition, losses covered by products liability policies will most likely increase because the sophisticated technology that underpins driverless vehicles will also need to be insured.”
Think hands-free means safer driving? Think again
For years we’ve been encouraged to use hands-free kits for mobile phones to avoid the danger of only using one hand on the wheel but it seems that the practice may also be risky. A new study from the University of Utah has found that drivers take up to 27 seconds to regain full attention after using voice-activated commands on their phone, or to control the radio or other devices. Even systems that are deemed better at understanding and processing voice commands distract drivers for up to 15 seconds. Of the three main ‘virtual assistants’ Google Now was found to be the most intuitive and slightly less distracting than iPhone’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana.
