Bermuda-based Athora Holding in June 2019 announced plans to acquire Netherlands-based Vivat from Anbang Group Holdings along with NN Group of The Netherlands. NN will become the new owner of Vivat Schadeverzekeringen (Vivat Non-Life). Athora will retain Vivat’s life and asset management businesses. The acquisition in the Netherlands comes soon after Athora’s January 2019 acquisition of Generali’s operations in Belgium. It is in line with the company’s external growth

Generali Employee Benefits (GEB) and global consulting and digital solutions company Accenture in April 2019 announced the release of a new blockchain technology solution to be applied to the employee benefits sector. The blockchain technology is reported to facilitate data sharing, thereby  increasing transparency within the reinsurance process for captive or pooling services. It is also designed to reduce processing errors through the use of smart contracts and automated

The Summer 2019 edition of Global Benefits Vision’s Directory of Global Employee Benefits and Global Mobility Providers is now available. The new edition can be browsed online and downloaded as a PDF. If you would like to be considered for free-of-charge inclusion in the Directory, email olivia@gbvmag.com for your Information Pack and Data Form.

Rising medical costs and shifting health drivers fuel innovation in employer-sponsored health plans Medical costs continue to outpace general inflation by close to three times, with a global average 9.7% in 2018 with similar increases for 2019 and 2020, according to the Mercer Marsh Benefits (MMB) 2019 Medical Trends Around the World report, released in June 2019. A survey of 204 insurers across 59 countries, the report assesses how