New insurance coverage is available for insurance agents assisting financial institutions in the United States.
XL Catlin announced this week that its Global Professional business unit is releasing a suite of financial institution bond insurance policies, designed to protect against employee dishonesty, burglary, robbery, forgery and other crimes.
Greg Bangs, chief underwriting officer with XL Catlin’s Global Crime unit, said the coverage is desperately needed as American financial institutions continue to suffer significant losses due to these risks.
“Each year, fidelity and crime insurers incur more than $300 million in losses by protecting organizations from crime. The risk is real,” Bangs said in a statement. “Consider that according to the FBI, in 2014, nearly 4,000 financial institutions, including commercial banks, credit unions and armored carrier companies were robbed.
“If stolen money is not recovered, it comes directly out of the financial institution’s reserves, and that can be a hard hit to their balance sheet.”
Among other risks, the new policies include coverage for:
- Fidelity – coverage for loss from dishonest or fraudulent employee acts
- On premises loss – resulting from robbery, burglary, misplacement or mysterious disappearance
- In Transit – from robbery, burglary, misplacement or mysterious disappearance while in the custody of a messenger or transportation company
- Forgery or Alteration – covers losses from forgery of a financial instrument specified in the policy, such as losses of money, securities or tangible properties
- Securities – covers losses directly resulting from a financial institution having accepted securities in good faith, and given value, extended credit or assumed liability in return
The tailored bond coverage is targeted toward stock brokers, investment bankers and managers, mortgage banks and finance companies, commercial bankers and saving banks, and insurance companies.
Endorsements are also available to address specific risks on an individual basis, XL Catlin said.
The new policies are available on a primary, excess and quota share basis with policy limits of up to $25 million, and coverage is provided by XL Catlin subsidiary, XL Insurance America.
