Articles by David Worsfold
Farm safety: Fatal farms
Farming is the most lethal of all industries. The sector and its main insurer are trying to change rules and mentalities to make it safer
Credit hire roundtable: necessary evil or essential service?
The insurance industry’s perpetually uneasy relationship with credit hire has often flared up into hostility. Judging by the tone of the exchanges at a recent roundtable, the current mood is much calmer, with a greater willingness to explore ways of…
Analysis: Pricing climate risks
As climate change becomes tangible, insurers are feeling the heat. Their understanding of the risks could inform not just their underwriting but also their investment strategies.
Analysis: Sport injury: Hitting hard
As professional sportspeople complain about their insufficient cover for career-ending injuries, insurers fear a surge in claims from contact sports
Interview: Faizal Karbani, CEO, Insure Halal
Halal Insure has recently launched sharia-compliant household insurance covers. Its CEO Faizal Karbani speaks to David Worsfold about his hopes for takaful insurance in the UK.
Analysis: Tracking rail risks
Railways are travelling through a changing landscape of severe weather risks and terror perils, but perhaps none so arresting as the cyber threats raised by their new reliance on digital connectivity
Analysis: Takaful, all promise and little delivery
With more than three million Muslims in the UK, there has long been a feeling that sharia-compliant insurance products should find a market but the reality has proved the opposite. So far, every attempt to establish a takaful insurer in the UK domestic…
Analysis: Risks, challenges and opportunities of commercial use of listed buildings
Underinsurance casts a long shadow across the world of listed properties, especially when owners are constantly expanding commercial activities. Experts warn that there can be many traps for the unwary or naïve, many of which do not come to light until…
Spotlight on ADAS: Is everyone ready for ADAS?
As assistance systems are making cars safer, but also more costly to repair, insurers would love a database listing which features are fitted on which vehicles - but motor manufacturers aren’t sharing that information yet
Adjusters 'must demand Brexit clarity from insurers'
Loss adjusters working for multi-national insurers in Europe must challenge them on their Brexit preparations, said Paul May, director of the International Association of Adjusting Federations.
Analysis: Lloyd's taking the Asian bull by the horns
Lloyd's and the London market are trying to win back their market shares in Asia, as the region is experiencing the world's most dynamic growth for the insurance industry.
Analysis: A changing investment climate
Insurers are increasingly finding themselves under pressure on three fronts when it comes to climate change – as underwriters, as major investors and as large employers with their own substantial carbon footprints. That pressure is about to intensify.
Analysis: Energy risks: negative energy?
The insurance industry is worried about the energy sector. This already complicated and fragmented industry is getting more complex, especially with pressure from governments to increase production from renewable sources, just as the risks it faces are…
Spotlight: Drones: Taking flight
Fast food and parcel deliveries by drones seemed a fantasy just a couple of years ago but it is now close to reality. Wherever you look, they are in the air. They are being flown by leisure users, the French police, UK lifeboats, Indian railways, oil rig…
Analysis: Legacy: Changing legacy
Once neatly shunted to one side as an IT issue, legacy now casts a long, darkening shadow across the insurance industry
Spotlight: Motor insurance: What will changes in mobility mean for replacement cars?
Replacement cars face an uncertain future as individual car ownership recedes and mobility changes
Insuring the Pacific: where cyclones can cost half a nation's GDP
The growing impact of climate change on the Pacific Islands just adds another layer of catastrophe risk to an already highly vulnerable group of countries.
We need to talk about fire claims
With concerns growing about the coordination of the many parties involved in investigating major fire claims, a roundtable recently brought together insurers, adjusters, forensic investigators and fire service chiefs. As they discussed the many…
Japan's earthquake gap
Despite being in a major earthquake zone the take up of insurance in Japan is relatively low. David Worsfold examines why.
Insurance M&As expected to focus on insurtech
The days of mega-mergers in the insurance industry may be behind us as consolidation activity has dropped significantly from the peaks of 2014 and 2015. The sector is contemplating this change of gear and steadying itself in the face of waves of global…
Fire claims: Not getting burnt
The Enterprise Act may expose inefficiences in the way claims are handled – and fire investigators could feel the heat, as any delay in investigating may cost
Apprenticeships: A radical overhaul
The radical overhaul by the government of the apprenticeship scheme - with the core aim of creating three million new apprentices by 2020 - is set to have a major impact on recruitment and training in the insurance industry, potentially reaching far…
Film Production: Lights, camera, insure!
Film sets can be dangerous places, with wires and cables trailing and spectacular stunts being performed. What are the risk factors associated with making movies?
The Great Fire of London and the birth of the insurance industry
350 years ago, London was ravaged by the Great Fire. Out of its ashes was born a fledgling property insurance market. What strides have been made in the following centuries?