Article 0 Comments Standard Chartered Plc is facing about £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) worth of investor claims at a London trial over allegations it systematically breached Iranian sanctions to win new business. A London judge ruled on Friday [April 19] that the trial, that will also probe accusations of bribery, should be split into two parts with the first scheduled for October 2026. The bank was sued by hundreds of investors over the claims of widespread misconduct, which has so far cost the bank more than $1.7 billion in penalties. The lender is facing the claim after it told watchdog ..read more

Budget 2024: Canada’s first national flood insurance program to be launched in partnership with property and casualty insurers Winnipeg, MB (Apr. 16, 2024) – In today’s federal budget, the government took another step forward to partner with the country’s property and casualty (P&C) insurers to continue developing Canada’s first low-cost national flood insurance program for households at high-risk of flooding. In response, Celyeste Power, President and CEO, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), issued the following statement: “Today’s commitment by the federal government will help ensure tha ..read more

Article 0 Comments Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the Rolling Meadows, Illinois-based broker, announced the acquisition of Australia’s Prasidium Credit Insurance. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. North Sydney-based Prasidium is a specialist trade credit insurance broker serving clients throughout Australia. Mark Smith, Stuart Prendergast, Mark Browning, Paul Daniele and their team will join Gallagher offices across Australia under the direction of Sarah Lyons, head of retail property/casualty brokerage operations for Gallagher in Australia and Asia. “Prasidium has a strong rec ..read more

It sounds like a surefire, slam-dunk trade for stock investors playing defense: ETFs that will bet on equity markets without — the pitch says — going down. Calamos Investments filed Monday for so-called “structured-protection” exchange-traded funds that will track a portion of the returns of the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 while hedging 100% of the downside via the options market, according to a Monday filing. The first fund launching within the suite is the Calamos S&P 500 Structured Alt Protection ETF, which aims to match the price return of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust ..read more

Deloitte and Intel are teaming to deliver AI-driven transformation, utilizing next-gen hardware and software for machine learning, deep learning and Generative AI Toronto, ON (Apr. 16, 2024) – Deloitte and Intel are pleased to announce a major expansion of their alliance to help enterprises around the world deploy their AI solutions cost efficiently with the latest hardware and software optimizations. These new offerings address the growing needs as the marketplace evolves from experimenting with AI to scaling implementations for distinct use cases that deliver real value. This collaboration c ..read more

Article 0 Comments Although it may have seemed like drivers had thrown in the towel on trying to find cheaper auto insurance prices late last year, a new study of consumer behavior finds they’re back to shopping around. In addition, when they decide to switch carriers, Progressive is the big winner among the top auto writers. The latest loyalty indicator and shopping trends (LIST) report from J.D. Power, conducted in collaboration with TransUnion, shows the shopping rate (or quote rate) for March 2024 came in at 13.5 percent—marking the highest rate for a single month since September 2020 ..read more

This underscores the challenge that local business owners face competing with major brands for clients, Cerulli said. “These overall preference levels present a bit of a challenge to emerging registered investment advisors and independent broker/dealer advisors, as they rarely possess high levels of unaided awareness among prospective clients in their periods of critical advice need,” Scott Smith, Cerulli’s director of advice relationships, said in a statement. According to the research findings, neither advised nor unadvised investors favored advisory practices that offer only online engage ..read more

“Yet despite economic uncertainty amid the revised pace of rate cuts for the year, along with uncertainty around the 2024 election, investors remain optimistic about the market.”  Dynata conducted the online survey from April 1-17 among 875 U.S. self-directed investors, investors who fully delegate investment account management to financial professionals and investors who do both. Sixty percent were male, and 40% female. The panel was broken into three levels of investable assets: less than $500,000, between $500,000 and $1 million, and more than $1 million.  Q2 Opportunities The s ..read more

Geneva, Switzerland (Apr. 7, 2024) – Canadian TV personality Kevin O’Leary – a familiar face from both Dragons’ Den and subsequently its American counterpart Shark Tank – has launched a watch insurance platform called WonderCare, in reference to his nickname, ‘Mr. Wonderful.’ “I have been looking at the watch insurance industry worldwide now for five years – [and] how broken it is – because I look at my own situation,” he wrotpostede on X (formerly Twitter). “I’m launching WonderCare … a new platform for watch insurance. I’m going to start in the United States, then we’re going to go to the [U ..read more

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