Status as of 16/09       

Table of Content

The decisions made and actions taken, or not taken, by companies and their directors in response to the COVID-19 crisis are being intensely scrutinised by regulators, shareholders, and creditors alike. It is anticipated that some businesses may face claims relating to their poor contingency planning and their practical and wider reactions to the crisis. So, an increase can be expected in claims on directors and officers (D&O) insurance policies.

Hogan Lovells Publications | 29 May 2020

Implications of COVID-19 on the Australian Mining Industry

Directors and Officers (“D&O”) liability policies, like many other liability policies, often have an exclusion that precludes coverage when one insured sues another insured. Coverage, however, can be restored under certain exceptions. One of those exceptions is the bankruptcy exception, which allows a bankruptcy trustee or comparable authority to sue on behalf of the estate against another insured like a director or officer.

1. Which financial (not tax or labour) short-term compensation schemes for immediate losses due to social distancing measures have been implemented? For which industries/sizes of business?

Deferred Loan Repayment

Welcome to the latest in the series of blogs from Fenchurch Law: 100 cases every policyholder needs to know. An opinionated and practical guide to the most important insurance decisions relating to the London / English insurance markets, all looked at from a pro-policyholder perspective.

Some cases are correctly decided and positive for policyholders. We celebrate those cases as The Good.

Some cases are, in our view, bad for policyholders, wrongly decided, and in need of being overturned. We highlight those decisions as The Bad.

On 24 September 2020, the European Commission (the Commission) relaunched its Capital Markets Union project with the publication of its ambitious new initiative,"A Capital Markets Union for people and businesses – new action plan" (the Action Plan). The purpose of the Action Plan is to reduce the current fragmented approach in financial markets and to tackle some of the remaining barriers to a single European capital market.

On 29 September 2020, Chief Justice Smellie QC handed down his judgment in the Matter of Premier Assurance Group SPC Ltd (in Controllership) (FSD Cause No. 210 of 2020) confirming the powers of the controllers appointed under section 24(2)(h) of the Insurance Law, 2010 (the "Insurance Law") so as to enable them to exercise their powers as against the "world at large". In doing so, the Chief Justice held that the Court has an inherent jurisdiction to supplement section 24 of the Insurance Law to "fill the practical gap" left by that provision.

Background

The Swiss Insurance Oversight Act has been subject to a partial revision in order to bring the protection of insurance customers in line with international developments and to improve the competitiveness of the Swiss insurance sector. The new provisions include a new insolvency restructuring regime, a customer categorisation making supervisory requirements proportional to the protection required by customers as well as new rules of conduct applicable to insurance undertakings and intermediaries.