@Risk

Despite an apparent downward trend in attack frequency over the past few months, terrorism remains a significant threat to businesses, according to the 2010 Aon Terrorism Threat Map, issued last week by Aon Crisis Management, a business practice of Aon Corporation.

The map assigns a threat level (Low, Guarded, Elevated, High or Severe) to countries throughout the world, and not surprisingly the 2010 edition identifies Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Somalia and Yemen as the modern battlefronts for terrorism.

The U.S. retained its Elevated classification, although terrorist incidents over the past year (the Fort Hood massacre, the foiled Christmas Day airliner attack over Detroit and last month’s bomb scare in New York’s Times Square, e.g.) helped push the U.S. higher up within the Elevated category. (more…)

Aon Risk Services, the global risk management and insurance brokerage business of Aon Corporation has launched its 17th annual Political Risk Map, and it shows that political and financial instability remain a feature of the business landscape.

There are 18 downgrades in this year’s map, driven mostly by rising risk levels in 2009, which in turn led to a significant volume of credit and political risk claims in international insurance markets.

The 18 countries with worsening conditions are: Algeria, Argentina, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Seychelles, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen.

“For instance, non-payment of sovereign and sub-sovereign debt obligations is a major issue for underwriters insuring risks in Ghana, and underwriters continue to experience a multitude of claims stemming from payment defaults by private sector banks in Ukraine,” explains Miles Johnstone, director of Aon’s Political Risk team. (more…)

The top three concerns for retailers today are the recession, damage to reputation, and supply chain disruptions and failures, according to new research by Aon.

Unfortunately, Aon’s “2009 U.S. Retail Industry Report” also found that retailers rank these three concerns as the ones they are least prepared for. Over half of the survey respondents (53%) say they aren’t prepared for supply chain failure or damage to reputation (52%). A third (33%) feel they lack adequate preparedness for the economic slowdown.
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Just last week, I wrote about Aon Corporation’s 2009 Defense Industry Benchmarking Report.

Now, the company is in the news again with the release of its first U.S. Quarterly Market Overview for Property, Casualty, and Directors’ and Officers’ Lines.

Aon, one of the world’s leading providers of risk management services, hopes companies will use trend data identified in the report to support informed decision-making in risk management.

“In this difficult economic climate, it has never been more critical to an organization’s overall health and performance to have an effective risk management program in place,” says Warren Mula, chairman of U.S. retail for Aon Risk Services.

I agree. And, in today’s global, complex, and ultra-competitive marketplace, it’s vital to incorporate the most up-to-date data in your risk management strategies.

Here are a few highlights from the 16-page report: (more…)

On Monday, Aon Corporation, a leading global provider of risk management services, released its 2009 Defense Industry Benchmarking Report.

This annual report addresses the key issues and concerns of defense industry clients and is designed to allow these organizations to benchmark their risk management and risk financing practices against those of their peers and competitors, while identifying practices or approaches that may improve the effectiveness of existing risk management strategies.

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