As a global insurance industry team, we aim to follow industry trends and developments as closely as possible in order to deliver well informed perspectives and thought leadership to our clients and contacts. Our Insurance Horizons 2018 brochure considers the impact of technology, interest rates, protectionism, excess capacity in the reinsurance market and cyber risk.
Category Archives: Germany
Subscribe to Germany RSS FeedThe Insurance Distribution Directive….one year to go
Member States across the EU are due to implement the Insurance Distribution Directive by 23 February 2018. With just one year to go we have looked at what progress the supervisory authorities in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK are making with their implementation plans and how firms in each country might be
EU/U.S. Covered Agreement: What’s Next?
On January 13, 2017, representatives of the European Union and the United States of America issued a joint statement announcing that they had successfully concluded negotiation of an agreement (the “Agreement” or “Covered Agreement”) that both parties contend “will ensure ongoing robust insurance consumer protection and provide enhanced regulatory certainty for insurers and reinsurers operating
Hogan Lovells: Insurance Industry Perspectives – 2016 Review
Hogan Lovells have produced a brochure highlighting key trends in the insurance industry as well as a number of articles on industry issues. The brochure also showcases the strength and depth of our insurance practice, and our client events and thought leadership. Click here to read the full brochure.
Hogan Lovells sponsoring InsurTech Rising 2016
Running from 14 to 16 November, the InsurTech Rising conference and Blockchain Summit will bring together key startups and incumbents shaping the InsurTech sector. Hogan Lovells is the conference’s Gold Sponsor and will be presenting on blockchain, the internet of things and insurance regulation, as well as moderating a panel discussion, introducing demos from a
Brexit – You snooze, you lose
It is 90 days since the UK’s electorate voted to leave the EU. With so many unknowns, how can you look beyond the uncertainty and decide what to do right now? The Brexit toolkit is a seven step practical guide to help you assess real impacts and implement a practical response. It also contains critical
InsurTech – Innovation in Insurance?
What is genuinely innovative about today’s insurance sector? Perhaps little – but that is beginning to change. For the past few years we have seen innovative ways of selling products – such as search engine aggregators – at the distribution end of the retail market. Yet with the majority of costs borne by insurers falling
Brexit: Hague Convention ensures English jurisdiction agreements and judgments will continue to have force within the EU
Following last week’s vote for Brexit, many are wondering what impact the decision will have on litigation and arbitration in the UK. Will jurisdiction agreements in favour of the UK courts continue to be respected within the EU, and will English judgments be enforceable throughout the EU? How are court documents to be served in
Impact of Brexit on the Insurance Industry
Webinar Invitation – 13 July 2016 In this webinar, we will be looking at the potential impact of Brexit (if and when it happens) on the insurance industry, including the possible implications for the rules on investments and reinsurance, and the effect on regulatory capital and the regulatory balance sheet. We will consider the corporate structures
EU: European Commission to issue Green Paper on Retail Financial Services and Insurance
The European Commission has recently published (2 September ) a roadmap on its forthcoming green paper on retail financial service and insurance. The objective of this Green Paper is to consider the obstacles faced by providers and consumers when offering or purchasing financial services across the EU. It will investigate issues not yet addressed in legislation
Proposal by Obama Administration Seeks to Limit U.S. Federal Income Tax Deductions for Reinsurance Premiums Paid by U.S. Cedents to Affiliated Non-U.S. Reinsurers
What is Being Proposed In an effort to reduce perceived U.S. tax advantages for certain multinational insurance and reinsurance groups with U.S. operations, the Obama administration in its 2016 Fiscal Year Budget Revenue Proposals seeks new legislation that would deny a U.S. cedent a federal income tax deduction for premiums paid to an affiliated non-U.S.
Germany: Pay-As-You-Drive-Insurances – First German Data Protection Authority stipulates requirements
Telematics-based pay-as-you-drive insurances are new innovative and not yet practice-proven products by the insurance industry. The Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information for North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesbeauftragter für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen – “LDI NRW“) is the first German data protection authority which evaluated a pay-as-you-drive product and stipulated requirements for data protection and
Recognition for Hogan Lovells’ Insurance Team from Who’s Who Legal 2015
Who’s Who Legal has just released its Insurance & Reinsurance 2015 Analysis, “a comprehensive analysis of the market, featuring 559 leading practitioners from 280 firms across 58 jurisdictions”, that highlights Hogan Lovells’ top international insurance practice. As the Analysis points out, “[o]nly a relatively small number of law firms can boast a global network of
Jurisdiction and Governing Law Rules in the European Union
To help litigants navigate those rules and avoid missing tactical opportunities at an early stage in a dispute, we have prepared a note which summarises the three key European Union Regulations and provides easy to navigate flow charts.
EU: IMD2 – Where are we now?
Progress has been made recently with the Council of the European Union agreeing its general approach on the Insurance Mediation Directive 2 (“IMD2”) on 5 November 2014. This allows negotiations to begin with the European Parliament. The European Commission originally presented a proposal for a revised insurance mediation directive in July 2012 and, following initial
Ebola: insurance under the microscope
Ebola continues to devastate West Africa. Over 14,000 cases including 5,000 deaths have been reported. Whilst the threat of a global outbreak remains relatively low, this crisis and the recent discovery of avian flu in Britain have again brought to the fore the exposure the (re)insurance industry has to pandemics. Prudent (re)insurers should use this
Global Insurance Seminar and Webinar Programme 2014/15
The Hogan Lovells Global Insurance Seminar and Webinar Programme for 2014/15 was launched in March. We have since put on a series of seminars and webinars covering topics of interest to our insurance and reinsurance clients around the world, hosted by our local insurance specialists. Click here for more information.
When do insurers need to charge themselves VAT?
This article was first published in Global Reinsurance Magazine on 30 September 2014 and is reproduced in the blog with kind permission of the publishers. The answer lies in the findings of a recent case at the European Court of Justice. The case found that when a company’s head office supplies services from a third
What the future holds for reinsurance arbitration clauses
This article was first published in Global Reinsurance Magazine on 14 August 2014 and reproduced in the blog with kind permission of the publishers. The time-honoured reliance on arbitration to settle disputes is under threat as reinsurance contracts evolve. Is the use of arbitration to settle disputes fading in the international reinsurance market? While confidentiality
Emerging risk: Arctic exploration, drones, bitcoin and artificial intelligence
This article was first published in Global Reinsurance Magazine on 1 August 2014 and reproduced in the blog with kind permission of the publishers. The world is ever changing. Change creates opportunity but with opportunity comes risk. With this, underwriters, brokers, risk analysts and others face new challenges. Some new risks, like cyber security, receive a
EU and US Dialogue Project
In 2012 a formal dialogue was initiated between the EU and the US with the objective of enhancing understanding and cooperation for the benefit of insurance consumers, business opportunity and effective supervision. In December 2012, following a year of collaboration, the project published the EU-U.S. Dialogue Project Technical Committee Reports Comparing Certain Aspects of the
*SAVE THE DATE* – Global Insurance Seminar and Webinar Programme 2014/15
We are pleased to announce that the third webinar in the Hogan Lovells Insurance Seminar and Webinar Programme 2014/15 will take place on Wednesday 10 September 2014 at 9:00 (PDT)/12:00 (EDT)/17:00 (BST). The seminar will cover: Fundamentals of Bad Faith Litigation in California: New Developments Click here for further information.
EU: Insurance Block Exemption – European Commission seeks views on its future
The current Insurance Block Exemption Regulation (IBER) expires on 31 March 2017, and the European Commission is required to report to the Council and European Parliament by March 2016 on the functioning and future of the IBER. To facilitate the preparation of this report, the Commission has issued a consultation seeking views on the IBER,
Evolution: Shaping Regulation, Unlocking Growth
Last year, Hogan Lovells and FT Remark interviewed 240 senior decision-makers from public companies across the globe, as part of a research project titled ‘Evolution: Reigniting the Global Economy’. That research highlighted the impact that legislators and policy makers have on businesses in every sector, in every one of the world’s markets — and the