October 25, 2026

The Insurance Council of Australia has submitted a revised General Insurance Code of Practice to ASIC that would write its obligations into consumer contracts and automatically accept home and motor property claims left undecided for 12 months, while AFCA's 2025-26 review recorded 36,022 general insurance complaints, up 5%, with claim delays up 25% to 8,246.

Intact Financial estimated third-quarter 2026 catastrophe losses of about C$660 million ($2.76 per diluted share) and Definity about C$190 million ($1.15 per share), together roughly C$850 million, driven by Ontario and Alberta flooding and British Columbia wildfires, lifting Intact's trailing 12-month losses to C$1.29 billion against C$1.20 billion of annual guidance.

TAL, the Australian life insurer owned by Japan's Dai-ichi Life, proposed on October 19, 2026 to buy the roughly 79.5% of Challenger it does not already own at A$11.80 a share, a 19.8% premium valuing Challenger at a little under A$8 billion; the proposal is non-binding and conditional on due diligence, approvals and a shareholder vote.

Attacks on internet-connected refrigeration controllers disrupted about 700 French supermarkets across Intermarché, Coopérative U and Carrefour in October 2026, with freezers reportedly reaching 40°C, and Lockton warns that cyber policies may exclude physical damage while property and stock-deterioration cover depends on policy wording.

An AM Best special report on social inflation, reported on October 19, 2026, says first-year commercial auto liability loss payments grew 6.4% a year from 2014 to 2024, more than double economic inflation, leaving the line with a $4.9 billion underwriting loss in 2024 and an estimated $4 billion to $5 billion reserve shortfall despite 14 consecutive years of rate increases.

Marsh's Global Insurance Market Index, published October 21, 2026, shows global commercial insurance rates down 5% in the third quarter after a 6% fall in the second, led by a 10% drop in property and offset by a 1% rise in casualty, with regional falls from 1% in the US to 14% in India, the Middle East and Africa.