• The Australian government published its first National Climate Risk Assessment which warned that extreme weather events could push carriers out of certain markets.

• Loss of insurance could have knock-on impacts with other sectors in the Australian economy warn the report’s authors.

• Insurance provision, as part of the broader financial services sector, was one of the 11 priority risks which the NCRA looked at.

• Climate change also poses a risk to the government and private sector finances which further threatens community resilience to extreme weather events.

• PSC Insurance Group confirms in ASX statement that it is in preliminary talks about a potential buyout.

• The announcements comes following an AFR report, which said talks of a takeover had begun with Arthur J. Gallagher and Ardonagh Group and that Goldman Sachs is advising on the negotiations.

• Group confirmed it had receiving multiple strategic approaches and was in discussions that may or may not lead to an offer.

• FWD Group announces 22% increase in the value of new business for Dec 2023, reaching US$991m.

• Operating profit after tax rose by 27% to US$372m.

• For the first time, the company reported operating profit across all four geographic business segments: Hong Kong and Macau, Thailand, Japan, and Emerging Markets.

• Solvency ratio improved slightly to 292% from 288% in 2022.

The marine and logistics specialty MGA also announce its expansion to North America with launch of Vivace Americas.

Ritchie has 25 years of insurance industry experience and joins HDI from Arch Insurance Australia.

Alongside Dunn, the loss adjuster also promoted Irwin Wei to Manager, Data, and Digital Solutions and Kalnisha Velu as Quality Assurance and Operations Manager.