A dedicated operating entity In September 2026, Sedgwick announced the launch of Carrier and Captive Solutions, a dedicated entity for insurers, captives, risk retention groups and delegated-authority businesses. Its offer combines claims administration, carrier programmes, MGA and MGU support, captive reporting, legacy-claims work and accident-and-health administration. Sedgwick says more than 1,000 professionals support the unit. The launch is an organisational and commercial announcement; it does not establish that client

A large-scale intervention in the individual health market The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in September 2026 said it had cancelled about 315,000 Affordable Care Act policies covering roughly 760,000 people in August 2026. The agency cited unverified citizenship or immigration documentation and suspected improper enrolments. It also moved to exclude 569 brokers whose 2026 applications allegedly showed statistically implausible patterns or lacked essential applicant information. The

A proposed route from client flow to private capital Blackstone has held discussions with Aon about creating a Lloyd’s syndicate that could earn returns on as much as $2 billion of annual premium, according an article published in September 2026 by the Financial Times. The project has not been confirmed as a final launch. Its significance lies in the proposed link between one of the world’s largest brokers and

The autumn 2026 risk update broadens board attention from direct exposures to technology providers, interconnected finance and emerging operational threats. A joint warning across European finance The European Banking Authority, EIOPA and ESMA have called on financial institutions and supervisors to remain vigilant about external dependencies, cyber threats and private credit. Their autumn 2026 update published in September 2026 points to geopolitical uncertainty, rapid technological change and cross-border financial

Mobility no longer follows a simple assignment model The 2026 ECA Mobility Hub and a subsequent analysis by Blick Rothenberg, both published in September 2026, highlighted how cross-border remote work, short-term moves and frequent business travel have changed the operating model for global mobility. Employers can no longer rely on a small population of formally assigned expatriates. People cross borders for overlapping professional and personal reasons, while immigration, tax,

Moody’s in September 2026 announced it had maintained a stable outlook for Nordic property and casualty insurers but cautioned that slowing price increases will shift premium growth toward volume, raising new underwriting discipline challenges. The sector enters this phase from a position of strength. Moody’s reported an average combined ratio of 84.8% for 2025, down from 89.5% in 2024, with pre-tax profits rising approximately 24% across covered insurers. That

From silent exposure to affirmative wording Beazley in September 2026 announced it had expanded its cyber and technology errors and omissions proposition with endorsements addressing risks created by a company’s own use of artificial intelligence. The move is important because many policyholders have relied on existing cyber, business interruption or professional liability clauses without knowing whether a loss caused by an AI system would meet the trigger. Affirmative wording

Daily use has moved ahead of formal control The 2026 Travelers Risk Index published in September 2026 reports that 89% of surveyed US business insurance decision-makers see artificial intelligence used day to day in their workforce, while only 59% say their organisation has formal practices governing that use. The 30-point difference is a useful indicator of unmanaged adoption, although the survey does not establish the quality or completeness of

A September 2026 study by Bharat Chandar of the Stanford Digital Economy Laboratory and Bouke Klein Teeselink of King’s College London examines 1.25 billion job postings and 154 million employment records across 41 countries. The researchers infer generative AI adoption from job advertisements and compare adopting firms with control firms. Their estimates indicate that senior employment rose while the junior share fell. The employment effect is uneven by seniority

Aon in September 2026 announced a new leadership and governance structure for Reinsurance Solutions in Germany, effective 1 October 2026. Phillip Esser will become chief executive, while Volker Wahl will serve as executive chairman. Jan-Oliver Thofern, whose retirement is planned for 1 January 2027, will advise Esser through the remainder of 2026. The firm is also establishing a seven-member Board of Reinsurance. Aon says the structure will bring together

Bloomberg Intelligence in September 2026 estimated that Europe will spend about EUR 500 billion on climate resilience through 2035. The figure covers reconstruction after extreme weather and investment intended to reduce future damage. It also reflects a change in the economic character of climate losses. Repairs once treated as exceptional are becoming part of a sustained cycle of public and private expenditure. Adaptation is becoming a recurring capital programme

Gallagher’s 2026 Benefits Benchmarks Report published in September 2026 gives employers a clear warning about the current renewal cycle. Thirty-six percent of surveyed organisations reported health plan premium increases of at least 10% at their latest renewal, compared with 27% in 2025. Only half said they were managing healthcare costs effectively. Specialty drugs were identified as a leading cost challenge by 49%, while 22% currently cover GLP-1 medicines for

A human fallback changed the nature of the service Reuters in September 2026 reported that Meta tested human contractors to handle some telephone calls initiated through Muse, its personal AI agent. Employees raised privacy concerns, and Meta rolled the feature back after acknowledging that the test had started without adequate disclosure. Internal tests cited by Reuters indicated that human handling could raise call success to between 95% and 98%,

Anthropic and OpenEvidence in September 2026 announced a partnership to make clinical AI decision support available free of charge in about 100 low- and middle-income countries. The service is intended for clinicians and is expected to account for local infrastructure, disease patterns and available treatments. The financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. The ambition addresses a genuine access problem. Clinicians in resource-constrained settings may have limited time,

Canada Life Re in September 2026 said tailored capital solutions have been an important contributor to its growth. The company reported net earnings of CAD 353 million in the first quarter of 2026 and base earnings of CAD 310 million in the second quarter. These are company-reported accounting measures and are not directly comparable with every competitor’s figures, but they indicate that the business entered the year with substantial

On 21 September 2026, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published preliminary laboratory payment data for 2027 and estimated that aligning Medicare rates more closely with private payer prices could save taxpayers approximately $1 billion a year. This is a proposal with a comment period, rather than an enacted schedule. Its significance for employer benefits lies in the relationship between public tariffs, commercial contracts and access

A survey reported in September 2026  by S&P Global Ratings covers 121 insurers and reinsurers representing roughly 38% of the assets of rated companies. It suggests that most respondents have moved beyond concepts into some form of operational integration, while only about one third describe AI as fully integrated. Reported benefits are appearing first in customer experience, underwriting, risk management and claims. Operational adoption is ahead of financial proof

Taboola’s proposed September 2026 acquisition of UK financial-advertising specialist Dianomi for up to £27 million underscores that audience quality and editorial context can outweigh raw traffic volume in an AI-disrupted media landscape. The initial offer of £19 million represented a 68% premium to Dianomi’s closing share price, reflecting the strategic value of Dianomi’s relationships with publishers such as The Wall Street Journal, CNN Business and Reuters, and financial advertisers

In September 2026, the Associated Press reported that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had proposed an AI incident notification mechanism during talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. The proposal would create a channel for sharing information about artificial-intelligence incidents that may affect national security. Details remain limited and China had not publicly accepted the mechanism at the time of reporting, although the discussions were described as candid and

Marsh has launched Broker WorkBench, an AI-powered placement platform for London specialty business. The platform is designed to standardise data and workflows across matching market requests, negotiation and binding. It supports lead capacity, digital follow capacity and follow-form capacity. Marsh says a process that can take two to four weeks may in some cases be reduced to days or hours. That is an ambition for the platform, not an

A busy market, with more smaller transactions The UK pension risk transfer market remained active in the first half of 2026. Hymans Robertson counted more than 135 transactions, with an aggregate value of about £10.2 billion, compared with £9.8 billion in the same period a year earlier. A notable feature was the number of transactions below £100 million. The figures are evidence of activity, not a forecast for the

Captives must become more accessible, flexible and technology-driven to play a bigger role in corporate risk management, industry leaders told delegates at the 2026 Airmic Guernsey conference. Speaking on a panel titled “2030 and beyond,” experts said the captive market is already moving past its traditional function of filling deductibles and participating in insurance programs. Will Thomas-Ferrand of Marsh argued that if the industry were designed today, barriers to

Default guided retirement solutions for defined contribution pension holders could expose millions of retirees to financial losses, according to new research from the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT). The study, commissioned by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, evaluated four retirement income models against behavioral evidence on pension decision-making: drawdown, immediate annuities, flex and fix, and retirement collective defined contribution (CDC). Under the Pension Schemes Act 2026, DC trustees must

A group including NatWest, Bank of America, ING, Capital One, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ASB has warned that AI shopping agents can create fraud, privacy and recourse risks. The banks’ proposed principles include disclosing when an agent is acting, explaining material decisions, protecting data and preserving consumer choice and interoperability. These are industry proposals, not a binding global standard. From search assistance to delegated action The issue is

In September 2026, Howden Re announced a new International Alternative Solutions practice led by Alexander Roth to develop risk and capital structures for clients across Europe, Asia and other international markets. The practice combines structured reinsurance, climate science, data analytics, product design, portfolio structuring, pricing, capital-markets access and placement. Peter Steiner and Kanika Anand have moved from Howden’s Climate Risk and Resilience practice to establish a dedicated parametric capability

In September 2026, reporting on Marsh’s survey of 1,800 US employers indicated that average health-benefit cost per employee is expected to rise by 8.2% in 2027, the largest annual increase since 2003. The forecast already assumes that employers will make plan changes to reduce spending. Without those measures, the increase could reach about 11%. Fifty-nine percent of surveyed employers plan new cost-saving actions for 2027, including changes to deductibles

According to a publication issued in September 2026, Marsh Re sees greater buyer choice and more bespoke cyber reinsurance structures. It expects European premium growth close to 10% in 2026 despite double-digit rate reductions. These trends can coexist as insured exposure, limits and take-up change; the figures remain a market outlook, not a guarantee. AI adds urgency because automated tools can shorten the period between discovery of a vulnerability