29 AUGUST, 2024

Unseen Insurance Stories Behind The Headlines

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Behind every news item there’s an insurance story. Insurance covers an enormous range of circumstances, things, people, possessions and more, designed to take the financial pain out of unexpected disasters. Can you guess which type of insurance lies at the heart of these stories?

Rare cargo found on a sunken pirate ship

Imagine how exciting it must be to discover a sunken pirate ship laden with ancient cargo? That’s what happened in the Mediterranean Sea when treasure hunters found an archaeological gold mine of artefacts 823 metres under the waves, the first ever Barbary pirate ship found in the region.

The ship’s home port was probably Algiers, a hub for the famous Barbary Coast piracy scene, and the pirates would have raided coastal towns and kidnapped people for ransom. Between 1580 and 1680 alone, the violent ‘corsairs’ captured and enslaved around 850,000 people and the final total probably comes to more than a million.

The ancient shipwreck brings these old horror stories back to life. She’s stuffed full of exciting stolen objects, including a super-rare spyglass, glass liquor bottles made in Belgium and Germany, and beautiful ceramic tea bowls made in Turkey.

The first formal marine insurance policy dates back to about 1350. The cover would have been very useful back in the 1600s when the Barbary pirates terrorised the Mediterranean. These days it still protects cargoes from end to end, by sea, road, railway and air, protecting you from risks as varied as fire and explosions, piracy, cargo loss, cargo theft, accidental damage, sinking, grounding and stranding, bad weather and more.

Singapore’s biggest money laundering case

In Singapore, two ex-bank relationship managers are involved in the city’s worst ever money laundering lawsuit. Wang Qiming, who used to work for Citibank Singapore, has been charged with ten counts including forging documents to cheat the bank, and Liu Kai, an ex-Bank Julius Baer & Co employee, was accused of helping a convicted money launderer with a forged Chinese tax document.

As you can imagine the scandal has shocked Asia. It saw cash, property, crypto-currency and other assets totalling S$3 billion seized by the authorities last year. Ten people were jailed earlier this year for laundering illicit funds from illegal overseas gambling operations and more, and others are yet to be arrested.

Crime and Fidelity Insurance supports businesses experiencing employee theft, embezzlement and fraud, protecting your business’s money and assets against criminal activity. It also covers the alteration of data, theft of money and securities inside the premises, robbery or safe burglary inside the building, computer fraud, extortion, fraudulent fund transfers, money orders, counterfeit cash and cyber crime.

KUALA LUMPUR SINKHOLE RAISES MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT STREET SAFETY

Cities are designed, built and maintained by humans. We expect them to be safe. But a tragedy in Kuala Lumpur proves urban environments aren’t always as safe as we think.

When an Indian tourist fell into an 8m deep sinkhole that appeared out of the blue, she was quickly lost in the complex sewer system beneath the hole. Rescue services are still trying to find her and a second sink hole has opened up close by.

It looks like there isn’t an accurate map of the city’s sewers and underground tunnels, which is worrying because it makes predicting accidents like this – and maintaining the underground systems themselves - very difficult. In 2015 a social media post talked about potential sinkholes in KL. We had fallen trees on busy roads in a storm a few months ago. It all goes to show, cities are risky places to be.

Kuala Lumpur’s authorities will have public liability insurance to pay their own legal costs and cover compensation payments to victims. People who have comprehensive health insurance and personal accident insurance can claim for treatment and get compensation for life-changing injuries. And the landslip and subsidence clause in property policies may also pay out for this kind of loss.

NEW KLANG VALLEY EXPRESSWAY CRASH

When a trailer overturned near the Jalan Duta toll plaza on the New Klang Valley Expressway it blocked lanes, caused serious traffic jams, and leaked fuel all over the road. The trail of diesel fuel caught fire, leaving passing cars having to drive around the trailer across the flow of fuel.

One car driving over the stream of fuel was engulfed in flames along with a trailer behind it. The driver was burned but luckily he wasn’t too badly injured. The fire was eventually put out by a fire engine and water tanker, which arrived within 10 minutes after the alarm was raised. Well done, Bomba.

There’s an important lesson here: no matter how much of a rush you’re in, please don’t drive over escaped fuel when there’s been an accident. Patience is what you need to stay safe!

We hope the vehicles involved were all covered by good quality personal or commercial vehicle insurance. The best commercial vehicle polices come in several flavours: third party, third party fire and theft, and comprehensive cover. Together they protect a wide range of vehicles, from light goods to fleets, HGVs and domestic cars. You’re insured against the costs arising from injuries to other people, vehicles, fire, theft, medical expenses, accidental damage, and the cost of replacing the vehicle's contents.

MALAYSIA’S NATIONAL FLOOD FORECASTING SYSTEM

Malaysia has spent around a million RM1 on its national flood forecasting and warning programme, and it leaves us ‘not too far behind’ the world’s average for early disaster warnings. This is good news when floods cost the economy RM800 million in 2023 alone.

In the most recent Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll, Malaysia scored 61% against a global average of 70%, a good score we achieved partly because the country is less disaster-prone than our neighbours in Southeast Asia. In fact no other country in our region has a lower rate of disaster than Malaysia, but it’s still vital to have a good country-wide early warning system.

If there’s a risk of flooding and you get enough warning, you can move business stock, products, materials and equipment out of the way, protect the building and make sure everyone is safe. And that means you won’t have to claim as much on your insurance policy. You might even not have to claim at all.

It’s good to know that most insurance policies - personal and commercial - protect your finances against natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, fires and storms.

ARE YOU COVERED?

Is every insurable aspect of your life or business covered? Contact us and we’ll help you spot any gaps as well as finding you the best policies for your unique situation.