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AM Best Upgrades Issuer Credit Rating of First Chicago Insurance Group Members

Article 0 Comments AM Best has upgraded the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICRs) to “bb+” (Fair) from “bb” (Fair) and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of B (Fair) of First Chicago Insurance Company and United Security Insurance Company. The outlook of the Long-Term ICRs has been revised to stable from positive, while the outlook of the FSR is stable. Both companies are domiciled in Bedford Park, IL and are collectively known as First Chicago Insurance Group (First Chicago). The Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect First Chicago’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as adequate, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The upgrade of the Long-Term ICRs reflects enhancements to the group’s ERM framework that include measurable risk appetite and tolerance statements, as well as the formalization of a structured program as it relates specifically to insurance operations. Management has been memorializing and enriching the ERM function diligently within its organization over the past few years. A new ERM committee has been established to fortify the regular review of a new ERM dashboard, which tracks known risks to ensure the group remains within its appetite and to identify emerging...

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AI ‘Man Camps’ Offer Golf, Free Steaks to Lure Workers in Texas

Article 0 Comments Companies competing for workers to build data centers are finding that a motel room with sluggish Wi-Fi isn’t much of a draw. Try free steaks and golf simulators. As data-center development has exploded with the rise of artificial intelligence, competition for water and power supplies is pushing construction further into rural areas that often lack the housing and infrastructure to support the hundreds or thousands of temporary workers needed to build hulking warehouses of computer servers. That’s forcing developers to increasingly lean on a stopgap solution that was popularized during the shale-oil boom of the 2010s: sprawling temporary villages known as man camps. The Target Hospitality data center camp near Afton, Texas. Photographer: Mark Felix/Bloomberg These temporary housing villages can vary from wood-framed two-story apartment buildings to containerized modular homes or trailer parks supplied with electricity and water. But to lure in-demand electricians, welders and pipefitters, developers are going the extra mile and offering game rooms, rib eyes and shuttle rides to work. That’s fueling a lucrative niche for companies including Target Hospitality Corp. and Civeo Corp. that specialize in mobile housing. It’s effectively a back-door play for a share of what Bloomberg Intelligence estimates is $700...

Coalition’s 2026 Cyber Claims Report Finds Initial Ransom Demands Surged 47% — But Most Businesses Refuse to Pay 0

Coalition’s 2026 Cyber Claims Report Finds Initial Ransom Demands Surged 47% — But Most Businesses Refuse to Pay

Business email compromise and funds transfer fraud still comprise the majority of cyber insurance claims, data shows Vancouver, BC (Mar. 5, 2026) — Coalition, the world’s first Active Insurance provider designed to help prevent digital risk before it strikes, has released the findings of its 2026 Cyber Claims Report, revealing that initial ransom demands in the full-year 2025 surged 47% year-over-year (YoY). However, while ransomware actors substantially increased their demands, a record 86% of businesses refused to pay, suggesting that organisations have improved their cyber resiliency with viable data backups and incident response plans. “The data suggests a turning point in the economics of ransomware: while threat actors escalate their demands to push for higher, seven-figure payouts, cyber insurer support is helping businesses limit losses and is starting to help tip the scales back in favor of defenders,” said Rob Jones, Coalition’s Global Head of Claims. “Ultimately, we’re seeing the continuous partnership that Active Insurance offers between Coalition and our policyholders is reshaping the loss profile of cyber insurance and creating better outcomes.” While ransomware was the most costly type of claim in 2025 with an average loss of USD $269,000, business email compromise (BEC) and funds transfer fraud (FTF)...

Messagepoint Acquires Sefas 0

Messagepoint Acquires Sefas

Acquisition advances comprehensive AI-powered platform for omnichannel management, orchestration, and digital delivery of regulated customer communications Toronto, ON (Mar. 5, 2026) – Messagepoint, a leading customer communications management (CCM) solutions provider, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Sefas, a CCM and enterprise communications processing (ECP) software vendor. Enterprises—especially in regulated industries—are under growing pressure to communicate faster and more accurately across channels, while reducing the cost and effort required to manage those communications. This acquisition strengthens Messagepoint’s ability to move organizations from fragmented document production to an orchestrated, trackable communications journey across channels. The acquisition builds on Messagepoint’s established OEM partnership with Sefas, first announced in 2021, and will accelerate product innovation through deeper platform integration. Messagepoint currently OEMs key Sefas solutions, including Messagepoint Composer (Sefas Designer) and Messagepoint ECP (Sefas Producer), to help organizations modernize regulated communications management across print and digital channels. In addition to deepening existing integrations, Messagepoint plans to bring additional solutions to customers—most notably Conductor, an omnichannel orchestration layer that coordinates and tracks high-volume print and digital communications, and Electronic Delivery Gateway (EDG), which helps integrate and manage digital delivery services. This acquisition positions Messagepoint to deliver an AI-powered platform that supports a more...

Crawford & Company Releases “Built For The Future: 2026 Predictions” 0

Crawford & Company Releases “Built For The Future: 2026 Predictions”

Crawford leaders offer expert insight into the trends and forces that will shape the U.S. claims landscape in 2026 Atlanta, GA (Mar. 5, 2026) – Crawford & Company® is pleased to announce a new report, Built for the Future: U.S. Predictions Report 2026, which explores the forces reshaping the insurance claims industry and offers expert insight into how organizations can prepare for what lies ahead. As the industry enters 2026 amid evolving catastrophe risk, accelerating digital adoption, and shifting market conditions, the report brings together perspectives from Crawford leaders across its U.S. operations. Their insights highlight where the claims ecosystem is headed and what it will take to build resilience, intelligence, and adaptability in an increasingly complex environment. “Built for the Future reflects how the claims industry is moving from discussion to action,” said Mike Hoberman, CEO, U.S. Operations. “The organizations that succeed in the years ahead will be those that invest intentionally in resiliency, embrace data and automation thoughtfully, and remain agile as market conditions continue to evolve. By doing so, they will be better positioned to leverage their expertise and drive meaningful results as the landscape transforms.” The report examines four key areas shaping U.S. insurance claims in 2026: Catastrophe recovery trends and the...

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Why EV Chargers Are Booming Despite Slumping New Car Sales

Article 1 Comment Despite the plunge in US electric vehicle sales, it appears there’s a critical enough mass to sustain the companies building public charging infrastructure. ChargePoint Holdings Inc. posted a 7% increase in sales in the last quarter of 2025, even as new EV sales fell by nearly 40% compared to the year-earlier quarter. “A lot of people get fixated on the new EV sales,” ChargePoint Chief Executive Officer Rick Wilmer said. “But what really drives our business is not only new EV sales, but the cumulative number of EVs that are on the road.” There are now roughly 5.8 million EVs zipping along American roads. With drivers increasingly relying on public charging, companies are racing to install more stations. EVgo Inc. is another company expanding its network. The firm aims to build up to 1,650 new slots to charge electric cars in the US this year, which would be 38% more than it installed last year. “We’re actually really excited about this year,” CEO Badar Khan said to investors on Tuesday. “I think it’s a year of really ramping up.” US chargers have become more reliable and far faster, which encourages more people to use them, according to...

KPMG strengthens global collaboration with SAP as an SAP Global Strategic Service Partner to drive measurable client value 0

KPMG strengthens global collaboration with SAP as an SAP Global Strategic Service Partner to drive measurable client value

A cloud-native, AI-first alliance that delivers intelligent, enterprise-led transformations with modular, scalable solutions for clients worldwide Co–innovating with SAP, combining KPMG professionals’ deep sector and functional knowledge with SAP expertise in enterprise applications and business AI London, UK (Feb. 10, 2026) – KPMG is expanding its collaboration with SAP SE, a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, through a strategic services partnership agreement. KPMG is now an SAP Global Strategic Service Partner (GSSP), placing KPMG in the top tier of SAP’s partner program. KPMG firms’ cloud-native, AI-first, co-innovation approach, along with specialized industry capabilities and KPMG Velocity implementation platform, can provide measurable value to clients. KPMG firms joined the SAP PartnerEdge program in 2024 to help clients fast-track their digital transformation journeys with the aim of becoming forward-looking businesses. This new milestone highlights KPMG and SAP’s joint efforts to innovate and address client needs by scaling trusted business-led, AI-enabled solutions. KPMG professionals’ differentiated industry experience and large-scale transformation capabilities, combined with SAP’s decades of leadership in mission-critical business applications, can deliver faster, measurable, AI-driven results for clients. “Businesses everywhere are navigating a fast-changing environment, and that naturally makes transformation more demanding. Our strengthened alliance with SAP brings together...

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Nebraska AG Sues Roblox Over Alleged Child Safety Failures

Article 0 Comments Nebraska Attorney General Hilgers this weekannounced a consumer‑protection and child‑safety lawsuit against Roblox Corporation, alleging that the company has knowingly created and maintained an online environment that exposes millions of children to sexual predators, violent content, and illegal activity while misleading parents about the platform’s safety. The complaint asserts that Roblox, despite having detailed knowledge of widespread exploitation occurring on the platform, markets itself as a safe, child‑friendly space while simultaneously failing to implement basic safeguards to protect minors. According to the lawsuit, Roblox has become one of the most widely used online platforms for children, with tens of millions of daily users, many under the age of 13. The lawsuit alleges that Roblox allows: Direct contact between minors and adult predators, including through private messaging, voice chat, and user‑generated “experiences.” Sexually explicit, violent, and age‑inappropriate content, often accessible to children as young as six. Simulated criminal activity, including graphic depictions of violence and other harmful scenarios. Inadequate parental controls that are difficult to use, easy to bypass, or misleading in their effectiveness. The lawsuit accuses Roblox of Roblox refusing to implement safety precautions. Roblox said in a statement that it prohibits user-to-user image and video sharing,...

AI-to-AI Claims Settlement: Putting Claims Technology in Consumers’ Hands 0

AI-to-AI Claims Settlement: Putting Claims Technology in Consumers’ Hands

By Joshua Schwadron, Founder & CEO, Mighty — The insurance industry is already using AI in claims. Personal injury attorneys are using AI in claims too. The real shift now is that now, for the first time, accident victims can use AI too after an accident—and that changes leverage, speed, and outcomes. At Mighty, we’ve completed the first motor vehicle injury claim settlements handled end-to-end by an AI agent, without a lawyer and without humans at Mighty involved in the negotiation. This isn’t a novelty. It’s the direction claims are headed: a consumer’s AI negotiating with an insurer’s AI to reach a fair number faster, with humans stepping in when a case is truly complex. The hidden problem: AI made law firms more profitable, not consumers better off Over the last decade, legal tech—and now AI—has been built mainly for personal injury law firms. The tools are real: automation for intake, records, demand letters, case summaries, negotiation workflows. But the economics didn’t change. Most firms in the United States still charge 33–40% contingency fees, and AI often just means they can run more files at the same price. So the consumer sees a weird outcome: AI reduced the cost of...

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Transgender Men Sue Kansas Over Law Invalidating Their Driver’s Licenses

Article 0 Comments Two transgender men are suing Kansas over a new law that invalidated their driver’s licenses and about 1,700 others for reflecting people’s gender identities and not their sex assigned at birth, arguing that the measure is “dehumanizing.” The men filed their case Thursday, the same day the law took effect, and argue that it violates rights to privacy, personal autonomy and due legal process guaranteed by the Kansas Constitution. The men also are challenging the law’s tough, new enforcement provisions for the state’s 3-year-old policy of barring transgender people from using public restrooms or other single-sex facilities associated with their gender identities. The men want to block the law, which also invalidated roughly 1,800 transgender people’s birth certificates. They filed their case in district court in Douglas County, where they live, which is home to the main University of Kansas campus and is a liberal bastion in a red-leaning state. “The Kansas Constitution prohibits the Kansas Legislature’s targeting of transgender individuals for this discriminatory and dehumanizing treatment,” the lawsuit says. The state Supreme Court declared in 2019 that the Kansas Bill of Rights confers and protects a right to bodily autonomy — a decision that protected abortion...