A mass IT outage is causing chaos globally, with planes grounded and businesses disrupted. A number of airports have been affected, amongst them Luton and London City, as Windows PCs display the dreaded 'blue screen of death' across the globe. Sky News was amongst the broadcasters taken offline earlier this morning as a result of a software update defect in Microsoft Windows.

Solicitors may soon face significant challenges in the renewal of their professional indemnity cover, as the recent Discovery Land v Axis decision drives insurers to contemplate pulling out of the market.

Insurers are expecting a wave of notifications in the coming days in the aftermath of the CrowdStrike-triggered outage, with losses likely to be seen under business interruption and contingent business interruption clauses, according to Acrisure Re.

The Financial Conduct Authority has told financial firms to do more to ensure parliamentarians, senior public servants and their families are not treated unfairly. Under legislation adopted by parliament, financial firms are required to carry out extra checks on so-called politically exposed persons, or PEPs, and there have been concerns about how firms in the UK are meeting these requirements.

The deadline for entering the 2024 Risk Management Awards has been extended. The Risk Management Awards celebrate excellence in the risk management arena, and are the pinnacle of achievement in the field – recognising the best people, products and programmes in the sector for over a decade.

Property and casualty insurers are expected to report improved profitability in 2024, with industry-wide return on equity across eight major markets at 10% so far this year, up from 6% in 2023. ROE of above 10% is forecast into 2025. Non-life premium volume is forecast to build on the 3.9% growth achieved in 2023, reaching £3.5trn in 2024 and £3.7trn in 2025, according to Swiss Re Institute's annual World Insurance sigma report.