Super Typhoon-inflicted losses manageable for Japan insurers - Best's Commentary

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 (Bernama) -- Given Super Typhoon Nanmadol’s reduced strength upon landfall and the parts of Japan affected, AM Best expects insured losses to be manageable for Japan’s non-life insurers.

In its Best’s Commentary, “Manageable Impact of Super Typhoon Nanmadol on Insured Losses,” AM Best states that large insurers in Japan are well-capitalised and their comprehensive reinsurance programmes will protect them from a significant impact on capital.

If insured losses are not high from the event, which mainly affected the agriculture-heavy island of Kyushu, the amount of losses passed to reinsurers may not be significant.

However, secondary perils such as hurricane-induced flooding, storm surges and landslides are not modelled to the same extent as primary perils, and loss creep was an issue for insurers after 2018’s Typhoon Jebi.

According to a statement, the commentary also notes that any catastrophic event after above-average catastrophe years may cause reinsurers to revisit their risk appetite and underwriting.

United States-headquartered AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry.

The company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City.

For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA

GALLIUM SEMICONDUCTOR UNVEILS NEW GAN TRANSISTOR PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

MILAN, Sept 27 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Gallium Semiconductor, an innovative supplier of RF Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor solutions, today unveiled its broad portfolio of RF Power Transistor products at the European Microwave Week 2022 Conference.

At the conference booth (#B25), Gallium Semi is showcasing a wide variety of GaN solutions for 5G infrastructure, aerospace and defense, public safety, and industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) applications. Key product highlights include:

• Known good die of GaN devices optimally designed for low thermal resistance and ranging from 10 to 400 Watts of saturated output power
• Unmatched GaN transistors in low cost plastic DFN packages with high reliability and excellent heat dissipation
• Easy-to-use broadband and pre-matched GaN transistors in air cavity packages
• Innovative dual path transistor solutions for 5G networks with excellent digital pre-distortion capability

These products deliver optimal performance for output power, gain, efficiency, and bandwidth. "Customers continue to demand RF power amplifiers that deliver high performance with high efficiency," said Michael Guyonnet, Vice President of Networks for Gallium Semi. "Our innovative GaN solutions provide breakthrough performance that customers require for their critical communication, radar and ISM applications." The new RF power transistors and evaluation boards are currently available for sampling to qualified customers. Gallium Semi’s full product catalog in electronic format is available for download at www.galliumsemi.com/downloads.

For additional information and sales contacts, please visit www.galliumsemi.com.

About Gallium Semiconductor

Gallium Semiconductor’s mission is to enable mass commercialization of Gallium Nitride (GaN) based semiconductor solutions for 5G mobile communications, aerospace and defense and industrial, scientific and medical applications. We combine the best global talents from engineering to manufacturing operations with experienced business leaders to cost effectively deliver the highest performance and efficiency semiconductors for next generation RF, microwave and millimeter-wave systems. Visit us at www.galliumsemi.com to learn more. 

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GREG WATSON TAKES THE HELM AS CEO OF NAPIER

 

Greg Wilson takes the helm as Napier CEO (Photo: Business Wire)

Former CEO Julian Dixon moves to full-time role as Founder and Board Member

LONDON, Sept 21 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Napier, a global end-to-end intelligent compliance platform and provider of advanced financial crime risk management solutions, has announced that its current Chief Operations Officer Greg Watson, is to take the helm as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect, as former CEO Julian Dixon moves into a full-time role as Founder and Board Member.
 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220919005120/en/

Greg’s tenure at Napier as well his wealth of experience in operational management and business strategy, gained at the likes of Fenergo, HSBC and UBS, makes him the ideal choice to lead Napier into its next phase of growth, building on the past several successful years of rapid expansion for the flourishing company.

“Greg’s an outstanding candidate for the position. His experience and understanding of our products and clients is exemplary, as is his commitment to making Napier the pre-eminent provider of AI-enhanced financial crime risk management software. I’m looking forward to seeing him take the company from strength to strength,” said Julian Dixon.

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AM BEST TO PRESENT AT MICROINSURANCE NETWORK'S VIRTUAL COUNTRY WORKSHOPS

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 (Bernama) -- Global credit rating agency, AM Best will sponsor and deliver a presentation at the Microinsurance Network’s virtual country workshops for India and the Philippines, taking place Sept 21 and 26, respectively.

The Microinsurance Network was established in 2002 by donors, multilateral agencies, non-governmental organisations, private insurance companies and other interested parties, and is the only global multi-stakeholder platform that promotes the development and delivery of effective risk management tools, including insurance services, for underserved people.

During these workshops, Rob Curtis, managing director of market development for the Asia-Pacific region at AM Best, will speak on the importance of supporting environmental, social and governance principals through the rating agency’s credit rating criteria.

United States-headquartered AM Best is a sponsor of each event. The India workshop is themed “Democratising Insurance: Driving Inclusion Through Innovation.” The Philippine-focused event is titled, “Nature-Positive Insurance: The Upside For People, Planet And Business”; The Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association is a co-sponsor.

AM Best has played a key role in these country workshops, and has participated and/or sponsored ones focused on the insurance markets of Brazil, Mexico and Morocco, as well as a previous workshop on the Philippines; each event addressed barriers and possible solutions needed for developing a microinsurance market.

According to a statement, Curtis recently joined AM Best after more than three decades of experience in the insurance industry, and previously was the head of the major groups and technical expert teams at Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority (IA), responsible for the development of Hong Kong’s new group-wide supervision and macro-prudential frameworks.

He is also co-chief executive officer of A.M. Best Asia-Pacific (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA

IMMUNOSCAPE FINANCING FACILITATES DISCOVERY OF CANCER-SPECIFIC T-CELL RECEPTORS

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 (Bernama) -- ImmunoScape, a pre-clinical biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of next-generation TCR-T-cell therapeutics, announced it has raised US$14 million in new financing. (US$1 = RM4.564)

Existing investor Anzu Partners led the round with participation from new investor Amgen Ventures and Singapore-based global investor EDBI.

“We have made significant strides in our discovery programme and have identified several compelling clinical TCR candidates using our Deep Immunomics platform,” said ImmunoScape Chief Executive Officer, Choon Peng Ng in a statement.

“The new funding will allow us to expedite our development efforts and help us to advance our therapeutic candidates toward the clinic.”

ImmunoScape’s differentiated Deep Immunomics platform utilises the company’s proprietary combinatorial barcoding technology to enable the discovery and indepth characterisation of rare cancer-specific T-cells at high resolution.

ImmunoScape’s platform is able to simultaneously evaluate tens of millions of T-cells in blood samples from hundreds of cancer patients to identify rare clinically relevant T-cell clones. 

The corresponding TCRs are then evaluated and prioritised to build a diverse portfolio of TCR-T-cell therapies.

By leveraging computational biology and machine learning, together with high throughput screening and evaluation of T-cell clones, ImmunoScape is able to efficiently identify novel T-cell therapy targets and TCR candidates. 

ImmunoScape has extensively validated its computational platform using virus-specific T-cells and is applying the same methods to build an extensive portfolio of cancer-specific TCRs.

More details at https://immunoscape.com/.

-- BERNAMA

South, Southeast Asian reinsurers improve underwriting but challenges remain - AM Best

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Reinsurance companies in South and Southeast Asia (S/SEA) posted an improved combined ratio in 2021, although underwriting performance remains pressured with a continued reliance on investments to achieve bottom-line profitability, according to global credit rating agency, AM Best.

The new Best’s Market Segment Report, “Meeting Cost of Capital Elusive for South and Southeast Asian Reinsurers Despite Improved Underwriting Performance,” is part of AM Best’s month-long look at the global reinsurance industry ahead of Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo. 

According to the report, S/SEA reinsurers recorded an overall combined ratio of 108 per cent in 2021, a five-percentage-point improvement from the recent high in 2019.

Despite the improvement in technical performance, AM Best notes that overall return on equity declined to 3.4 per cent in 2021 due to low investment yields amid a prolonged low interest rate environment in most S/SEA markets.

“Even with rate improvements in the past two renewal seasons, the pricing increases may not be enough to see significant improvement in technical profitability given expected increases in loss costs should higher inflation persist.

“Reinsurers will need a prudent investment and retrocession strategy, along with continued underwriting discipline,” said director, analytics, AM Best, Michael Dunckley.

Meanwhile, AM Best senior financial analyst, Kanika Thukral said: “Although investment returns are expected to increase over the near term alongside a recovery in interest rates, rising inflation in the region is likely to pose challenges in meeting the cost of capital prospectively.”

According to a statement, AM Best still expects the segment to see stable growth, supported by the expansion of primary insurance markets with economic recovery and increased insurance penetration.

The report notes that reinsurers in the region have approached 2022 renewals with focus on achieving technical profitability, due to the expectations of a challenging investment landscape and an inflationary environment.

More details at www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA

Lightning Network startup Neutronpay raised US$2.25 million in Seed funding June 1

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 (Bernama) -- Neutronpay, a Vancouver, Canada and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam based startup that enables consumers and businesses to send and receive payments on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network raised USD$2.25M in Seed funding on June 1. (US$1 = RM4.527)

The Lightning Network is a “layer 2” payment protocol which sits atop Bitcoin and facilitates instantly settled payments measured in milliseconds, is capable of millions of transactions per second and allows for exceptionally low fees, which all combined makes it the ideal payment network of any type, period.

Lightning has the potential to replace all debit, credit and wire transactions globally. Because of its interoperability anyone with a Lightning enabled app could spend or send funds in local currency at any merchant or person worldwide. Online, in-store, cross-border, micro, real-time, Lightning can do it!

The round was led by Hivemind Ventures with additional funding coming from venture firms Republic, Cavalry, Ride Wave, Studio, Iterative, Fulgur Ventures and individual investors Bill Crowley (former Chief Product Officer - Hyperwallet) and Lisa Shields (Founder & former CEO - Hyperwallet *Acquired by PayPal).

The funding has helped with additional headcount across various departments, with a focus on further development of enterprise APIs, soon to be rolled out mobile consumer app, sales & marketing and compliance.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Albert Buu, Neutronpay is the first Lightning company with an initial focus on Vietnam's 100m person population, with additional countries to follow throughout South East Asia.

“Making the move to Vietnam three years ago was my commitment to following through on this vision. Laying the infrastructure for Lightning across South East Asia would make it very easy for locals to better transact with each other and for the rest of the world to transact in the region whether while on vacation or for doing business,” Buu was quoted as saying in a statement.

For more information, visit www.neutronpay.com.

-- BERNAMA

MITSUI CHEMICALS SHOWCASES AT FIND-DESIGN FAIR ASIA IN SINGAPORE NEW GLASS FILM, POSICA™ THAT IMPROVES VIEW EXPERIENCE

TOKYO, Sept 14 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: HASHIMOTO Osamu) announced today that it will be exhibiting at the FIND-DESIGN FAIR ASIA, which is set to be held at Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre in Singapore over from 22 to 24 September, 2022.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220913005082/en/

 

What is posica™?

Many times when we stood behind a window looking out at the skyline or scenery, we all would had questioned ourselves that “the view should be even more spectacular as the weather is brilliant”.

Our new glass film, posica™ is a solution that redesigns the window scenery and change the view experience. By sticking posica™ to the window, you can control the incident light. Scenery looks more natural and vivid, creating exciting moments for people. Objects and physical items look more beautiful, and food look even more delicious.

Create a sense of openness through the windows of resort hotels. Further enhance happiness and create lasting memories in wedding halls. Refresh office spaces to improve focus. Share delicious flavors on displays in restaurants and patisserie. Redesign the scenery and make people's hearts dance, posica™ will change your experiences.

Please come and experience the new world that posica™ brings to you at FIND-DESIGN FAIR ASIA. We look forward to seeing you at booth number A39.
https://www.designfairasia.com/exhibitor-collection/mitsui-chemicals/

Exhibition details

Date: 22 to 24 September, 2022
Venue: Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, Singapore
Booth: A39

Follow us on LinkedIn for more updates from Mitsui Chemicals Group. 

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ST JAMES'S PLACE UPGRADES FINANCIAL CRIME DEFENCES WITH NAPIER'S ADVANCED SCREENING TOOL

 

St James’s Place upgrades financial crime defences with Napier’s advanced screening tool (Graphic: Business Wire)

LONDON, Sept 7 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Napier, provider of advanced financial crime compliance solutions, has partnered with one of UK’s top wealth management and financial planning specialists, St. James’s Place. The partnership will upgrade SJP’s client and entity screening capabilities, strengthening and enabling agility within its financial crime compliance function.
 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220905005400/en/ 

With Napier’s AI-enhanced screening solution, St James’s Place can leverage large-scale, ongoing customer screening and re-screening capabilities. The solution provides SJP with the tools to continuously screen entities against global watch lists of sanctions, politically exposed persons, adverse media, as well as any internal whitelists and blacklists, across the entire organisation.

Chris Thomas, Group Money Laundering Reporting Officer at St. James’s Place, said: “We are very pleased with the performance of the system to date. At SJP we prioritise offering the most secure and compliant financial services solutions, and part of that commitment is investing in the best and most robust technologies available to always stay one step ahead of financial criminals”.

“The fact that we are now able to undertake daily screening means that management of the operational workflow is far more efficient. The system offers greater flexibility than the previous one, and there are lots of opportunities for further automation of the review and decisioning process.”

Julian Dixon, founder and CEO at Napier, said: “The regulatory landscape moves at a rate of knots, and organisations must be agile, continuously adapting their approaches to financial crime compliance. A single, rigid solution won’t keep an organisation secure for very long- which is why organisations must embrace flexible, modern technologies. Napier’s customer screening solution enables faster screening and decision making, which is why SJP’s journey with us has already seen its use of our solution expand.”

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220905005400/en/ 

Contact 
John Sullivan
napier@contextpr.co.uk 

Source : Napier

--BERNAMA