Cyber insurance rates are continuing to rise, albeit at a slower pace, according to data published today by Marsh. Financial and professional rates fell for a second quarter, according to the company’s quarterly Global Insurance Market Index, which shows that, in Q4 2022, prices increased 4% across the board.

Shifting geopolitical alignments are contributing to a division amongst opposing blocs across the globe, according to the latest WTW/Oxford Analytica Political Risk Index. Of the 61 countries and territories analysed, 25 lean West, towards the US and/or Europe; 18 lean East, opposing the Western powers on many key issues; and another 18 are “attempting to remain neutral”.

An estimated 2 million people in the UK (3% of the population) reported experiencing Long Covid symptoms, as at 2nd January 2023, according to data published today by the ONS.

British law firm Beale & Co has become the latest member of the Global Insurance Law Connext network, joining 12 members in its European group, and bringing the number of territories reached by the network to 21.

Post-Covid recovery is far from complete for companies in the leisure and hospitality sectors, as they struggle with a wide array of strategic risks in the aftermath of the pandemic. Around half the US$300m+ firms polled by WTW as part of its inaugural Global Leisure and Hospitality Risk Outlook 2023 report are still some way from business as usual.

Insurance valuation specialist, Charterfields, says traditional approaches to updating declared values, including the use of the Consumer Price Index, are out of sync with how prices have changed for many assets. Its own analysis of commercial locations assessed over the last four years suggests that as many as 88% of them were underinsured.