Here are the speakers for FERMA’s first joint event with AIDA Europe: European Insurance Law: When Theory Meets Practice with the topics they will be discussing. The event will take place in Paris on 3 June.
Co-insurance: who owes what, when and to whom?
- Christian Bouckaert, Senior Partner of SCP Brouckaert Ormen Passemar Sportes, France
- Professor Herman Cousy, Professor of Law, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
- Professor Alberto Monti, Institute for Advanced Study IUSS, Pavia, Italy
- Jo Willaert, Corporate Risk Manager, AgfaGevaert, Belgium
Serial claims: When fiction trumps reality
- David Kendall, Partner and Co-Chair of the International Insurance and Reinsurance Department, Edwards Wildman Palmer, UK
- Professor Jérôme Kullmann, Director of the Institut des Assurances de Paris, France
- Nicholas Rönneberg, Senior Executive Manager Claims Management, Munich Re, Germany
- Frédérique Bannes, Head of the legal and claims department at Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe, France
Embargo: The discordant music of European and national public orders
- Harry Daugird, Senior Risk Advisor Risk Management Insurance, ABB, Germany
- Christian Felderer, General Legal Counsel and Executive Vice President of SCOR Holding,
Switzerland - Robert Walsh, Group Financial Crime Officer, AXA Group Legal and Compliance, United States
- Professor Manfred Wandt, Director of the Insurance Law Institute, University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany
D&O: Phantasm on forbidden guarantees
- Jorge Angell, Senior Partner, LC Rodrigo Abogados, Spain
- Ottó Csurgó, Chief Executive Officer, CIG Pannonia EMABIT, Hungary
- John Curran, Partner, DLA Piper, UK
- Emmanuel Silvestre, Vice President – Specialty Casualty Underwriting Manager D&O/FI at Liberty International Underwriters, France
More details are available at AIDA-FERMA Conference
The programme
Some product defects are obvious quickly; in others the fault may not manifest itself for months or even years with complicated liability and coverage issues that often result in legal disputes.
Serial claims and aggregate limits are, therefore, one of the four highly topical insurance law issues for discussion at the FERMA-AIDA Europe event.
FERMA executive manager, Florence Bindelle, who has re/insurance law background, said: “Whether FERMA
members are directly involved with insurance or not, insurance law has implications for what they do, because a legal issue over a major loss can affect the company’s balance sheet or the position of the directors”.
For example, with the European Commission continuing to press for some form of European system of collective redress, the method of settling a string of liability claims across several jurisdictions could become more than academic interest. A general policy may give cover for losses resulting from a single cause over a period of time but there will be an aggregate limit to the payment. If claims are settled on a first come, first served basis, there may be no coverage left for later claims.
The three other topics which the conference will cover are:
1. Co-insurance, using several insurers to underwrite a single large risk or programme, is a subject of continuing discussion at European level as DG Competition is again questioning the practice.
2. Embargoes have become a common method of applying political pressure on countries in conflicts, but they throw up legal issues relating to commercial insurance especially for companies that already have trading relationships and contractual obligations where the sanctions apply.
3. D&O insurance now protects a very large number of European board members, but brokers and insurers say that some indemnities are not allowed, fines for example, or kidnap ransom payments. What does the law say?
Florence said: “We believe that our relationship with AIDA Europe will help us support our members, first providing knowledge and contacts through events like this one and in future representations to the European Commission on insurance law issues which affect them”.