Finance & Insurance Week: Big Fines for 16 Wall Street Banks, Costliness of Hurricane Ian & More

SEC, CFTC Fines for Wall Street Firms’ Record-Keeping Failures Reach $2B

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined 16 financial firms, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, a combined $1.8 billion for failing to prevent their staff from using personal devices and applications for business communications.

From January 2018 through September 2021 the firms’ staff, including senior bankers and traders, routinely discussed matters such as trades and debt and equity deals with clients, colleagues and outside advisers using apps like text messaging and WhatsApp, the agencies said. The agencies said the institutions failed to preserve the majority of those communications, in violation of federal rules.

The $1.8 billion in fines, added to the $200 million in fines levied against JPMorgan Chase & Co. in December, bring the total amount of penalties to over $2 billion, making them the largest ever imposed on banks for record-keeping failures. (REUTERS, BLOOMBERG)

Hurricane Ian Expected to be Among Costliest Ever

Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida’s Gulf coast last Wednesday as a Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of around 150mph, making it one of the strongest ever to make landfall in the United States. It may also be one of the costliest ever, with many insurance modelers projecting losses of between $20 billion and $40 billion, according to the Insurance Information Institute. That sum would place Ian on the list of the Top 10 costliest hurricanes in U.S. history and make it the second to do so in the last two years, after last year’s Hurricane Ida. (INSURANCE JOURNAL, NBC NEWS)

Dispute over Auto Insurance Rates During Pandemic Delaying Rate Increase Approvals in CA

Auto insurers have warned California Insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara (D) that his refusal to approve any rate increases in over two years is risking a “crisis” in the nation’s largest auto insurance market.

“Auto insurers cannot operate indefinitely in California without the ability to collect adequate rates,” three associations representing insurers that write over 90 percent of the state’ auto insurance policies wrote in a letter to Lara in April.

The delays are part of an effort by Lara to return premiums to consumers he says were overcharged during the early months of the pandemic when the state’s stay-at-home order virtually eliminated traffic. (INSURANCE JOURNAL)

Employers, Insurers Have Big Incentive to Address America’s $557B Per Year Gun Violence Problem

Gun violence costs the United States $557 billion a year - 2.6 percent of GDP - according to a peer-reviewed study conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School. The study attributed most of that sum to quality-of-life losses suffered by the victims of gun violence and their families.

Zirui Song, an associate professor of health care policy in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, as well as an associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a statement that despite spending huge sums on the health of their employees, “U.S. businesses have by and large not engaged publicly on the subject of firearms.

“Employers and their health insurers sustain a substantial financial burden from firearm injuries and have a financial incentive to prevent them,” he said. (INSURANCE JOURNAL)

NJ Food Delivery Companies Not Subject to Ride-Hailing Insurance Law

The Superior Court of New Jersey in Essex County ruled that a state law requiring app-based transportation services to provide at least $1.5 million in underinsured motorist coverage for their drivers doesn’t apply to food delivery services like Uber Eats. The law is only applicable to companies and drivers that transport passengers, the court said. (INSURANCE JOURNAL)

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK