Small and medium enterprises (SME) continue to face challenging financing conditions with borrowing costs well above pre-COVID levels and new lending volumes remaining 20% lower than 2019 in real terms, according to a new OECD report published in August 2026. The financing squeeze is intensifying as lenders demand greater security from SME borrowers. The share of small businesses required to provide collateral jumped 5 percentage points to reach 53%

The UK and India’s exchange of letters dated 24 July 2025 set out a commitment to negotiate a Double Contributions Convention. For international assignment teams, the important distinction was between an agreed negotiating framework and contribution relief that could already be used in payroll. Read the dated development The letters envisaged home-country-only social-security contributions for qualifying detached employees for up to thirty-six months. They stated that the future convention

In July 2023, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for International Finance announced that the new agreement on taxation of frontier workers between Switzerland and Italy had entered into force on 17 July, with application from January 2024. The January milestone therefore concerned implementation of an established agreement. For multinational employers, the useful lesson is to identify the employees affected before turning a country announcement into a payroll instruction. Start with the

While workplace mental health awareness has dramatically increased since COVID-19, most employers remain “still in a transition stage” and haven’t fully integrated mental health into their leadership practices or business strategy, according to HR expert Pamela McGee, who spoke at the SHRM26 Conference in June 2026. Many organizations acknowledge mental health challenges but fail to move beyond basic offerings like employee assistance programs (EAPs). McGee notes that EAPs often

In a speech delivered on 25 June 2026, Gan Kim Yong, chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, announced that MAS would soon consult on introducing protected cell companies. The proposed structure would allow assets and liabilities to be separated within individual cells under a common core entity, while sharing infrastructure. MAS presented this as a way to widen access to captive insurance and support alternative risk transfer, including

A June 2026 NBER working paper examines whether employee reviews can reveal information about product and service quality before problems become visible externally. Wei Cai, Dennis Campbell, Yaxuan Chen, Yufei Chen and Andrea Prat use more than 4.3 million Glassdoor reviews to construct firm-level quality measures for S&P 1500 companies covering 2008 to 2023. The authors train machine-learning models using customer satisfaction information for a subset of firms and

SHRM’s 2026 Employee Benefits Survey provides a new benchmark for paid family leave. In an article published on 17 June 2026, SHRM reports that 46% of responding organizations offer paid parental leave, seven percentage points more than in 2025. Paid maternity leave is offered by 44%, paid paternity leave by 34%, and paid prenatal leave beyond legal requirements by 18%. The survey covers 5,472 organizations. These figures describe the

GRiD published its annual group risk claims figures on 16 June 2026. The UK industry paid approximately GBP2.69 billion during 2025 across employer-sponsored life assurance, income protection and critical illness cover. The release also reports that 5,590 employees absent through ill health were helped to return to work by the end of 2025. The figures cover different products and should retain those distinctions. Income protection payments include new and

In June 2023, South Africa’s National Treasury published draft legislation for a two-pot retirement system. The original proposal’s timetable subsequently changed, and SARS confirms that implementation began in September 2024. The distinction matters when using historical announcements to explain a benefit. Employees need an account of the arrangement applicable to them, with savings access, preserved retirement provision and tax consequences explained separately. Begin with the correct stage of the

Marsh announced the launch of Marsh Nexus Captive Solution on 15 June 2026. The offering operates through its Mangrove Protected Cell Company in Washington, D.C., and is designed for organisations spending more than USD3 million annually on employee benefits outside the United States. The announcement identifies Redion Employee Benefits, formerly Generali Employee Benefits Network, and Zurich as supporting global insurance and reinsurance partners. Marsh presents Nexus as a way

An NBER working paper circulated in the newsletter received on 15 June 2026 examines a monthly office day for remote customer-service employees. Researchers randomly assigned 248 employees at a large multinational to remain fully remote or meet at the office together one day each month. The study reports higher productivity and lower attrition in the treatment group. The experiment offers evidence about a defined arrangement in a particular workplace.

Tokio Marine HCC’s 2026 Annual Market Report describes continuing pressure on medical stop-loss insurance from more frequent large claims, expensive treatment and complex conditions requiring sustained care. The report was highlighted in the Captive Wire newsletter received on 14 June 2026. Its exact original publication day was not established in the materials available for this review. The insurer’s report introduction points to cancer, cardiovascular conditions, neonatal care, transplants and

Alex Chan’s working paper, Optimal Medical Liability for AI, is dated 9 June 2026 in the Harvard Business School version and was circulated by NBER in June 2026. The paper develops a theoretical framework for situations where AI acts as a doctor rather than only assisting a clinician. It examines how the available medical record affects the incentives and responsibilities that a liability arrangement can create. The argument is

Sun Life Asia released its third Financial Resilience Index on 9 June 2026, drawing on a May 2026 survey of more than 6,000 respondents in Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. The proportion classified as highly resilient fell from 32% in 2025 to 25% in 2026. The survey reports that 83% of respondents found monthly expenses harder to cover because of inflation. It also records

Allianz Partners announced on 5 June 2026 that it had signed an agreement to acquire a large portion of nib’s Australian and New Zealand travel insurance portfolio. The announced transaction includes the Travel Insurance Direct brand, a twenty-year white-label distribution agreement with nib Group in both countries, and a substantial portion of nib’s established intermediary relationships in Australia. At the announcement date, the transaction remained subject to regulatory approval

NBER Working Paper 35265, issued in May 2026 and circulated in the newsletter received on 1 June 2026, revisits the employer size wage effect. Using linked German data on firms, establishments and employees, the researchers find that the usual relationship between establishment size and wages disappears across establishments within the same large firm after controlling for the firm. The result distinguishes two comparisons that can otherwise be confused: employees

The version of NBER Working Paper 35275 circulated in the newsletter received on 1 June 2026 studies AI coding tools using data on more than 100,000 GitHub developers and their tool usage. Its matched event-study analysis finds substantial increases in coding activity, with smaller gains as the outcome moves from commits to projects and actual releases. This article concerns that archived version. The NBER page subsequently lists a September

SHRM’s 2026 Mental Health Snapshot reports that 55% of surveyed US workers rarely or never used their organisation’s mental health benefits. The infographic also reports that 73% of workers and 87% of HR professionals agreed that organisations have a responsibility to support employee mental health. The worker sample comprised 1,101 people surveyed on 11 February 2026. A separate sample of 1,022 HR professionals was surveyed from 5 February 2026

Business Group on Health’s 2026 GLP-1 survey examines responses from 105 employer members collected in February and March 2026. The organisation reports that 67% of respondents cover GLP-1s for weight management. Among employers covering that use, 72% said they were likely to continue coverage in 2027, while 10% said they likely would not. The denominator and wording matter. The finding concerns the group already covering weight-management use, and describes

Generali introduced Redion on 26 May 2026 as the brand for its global Care platform, bringing together Europ Assistance and Generali Employee Benefits. Antoine Parisi, the existing Generali CARE Hub chief executive, leads Redion as group CEO. The company says the businesses have operated as an integrated entity for nearly three years. Generali describes a platform spanning employee protection, medical and emergency assistance, travel insurance, health and mobility services.

Generali Group in May 2026 announced Redion: a new brand for its global Care platform, which brings together the activities of Europ Assistance and Generali Employee Benefits under a single identity and offering. Having operated as an integrated entity within Generali Care for nearly three years, Redion is the brand Generali Care deserves — one that honours the extraordinary work already accomplished and makes visible, to the world, what

Preference for Explainable AI, NBER Working Paper 35240 by Alex Chan, studies participants acting as loan officers on real $10,000 loans from a US lender. The May 2026 paper finds that explanations revealing demographic penalties made participants more likely to override the AI recommendation. When bonuses depended on repayment, participants sought predictions but avoided explanations under some experimental conditions. A secondary experiment examines difficulty recognising when explanations improve decisions.

Management of Health Care Facilities and Patient Attendance during Major Disruptions: Evidence from Kenya, NBER Working Paper 35223, links a management survey with administrative data. The May 2026 study covers 429 primary healthcare facilities and 73 hospitals and examines outpatient attendance during disruption that included COVID-19 and a public health workers’ strike. The authors report that attendance fell overall. Private facilities experienced a smaller decline than public facilities, consistent

ClearPoint Health announced Private Label Captives as a dedicated strategic offering on 20 May 2026. The company’s release, distributed through EIN Presswire, describes demand from organisations seeking health benefits infrastructure aligned with their industry, geography and long-term objectives. ClearPoint also posted a release page dated 26 May 2026 on its own website. The announcement refers to a 2026 partnership with a statewide public-sector association for a programme serving public

Allianz Partners in May 2026 appointed four senior executives across its Health line of business as part of a segment-led strategy to enhance client service and drive sustainable growth in global markets. Marco Fattori takes the role of Global Lead – Corporate Employee Benefits, bringing a decade of experience at Allianz including previous roles as Head of Account Management and Sales Director in Europe. He will oversee global strategy,

Endogenous Task Bundling, Skills and Automation, NBER Working Paper 35211 by Joshua S. Gans, examines how firms recombine activities after automation. The May 2026 paper argues that holding the pre-automation task bundle fixed can obscure which remaining human skills are rewarded. Its model shows that a wage regression based on a fixed bundle can misidentify the sign of an AI-exposure effect. This is a theoretical result, not a measured

Symetra announced on 12 May 2026 that Jeff Sealey had been named Vice President, Stop Loss Captives. The company positions the appointment within development and growth of its stop-loss captive business. It is a leadership announcement concerning financing structures relevant to employer health plans. The release does not establish client savings or changes to contracts. References to Symetra’s long history in stop-loss concern the business, not the appointee’s career.