About Caroline McDonald

Caroline McDonald is a writer and former senior editor of the Risk Management Monitor and Risk Management magazine.
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Smaller Companies More Vulnerable to Employee Theft

It stands to reason that larger organizations would be more at risk of embezzlement by employees, but the reverse has been shown to be the case.

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Organizations with fewer than 150 employees are particularly at risk, accounting for 82% of all embezzlement cases, HiscoxHiscox2 found in its new report, Embezzlement Study: A report on White Collar Crime in America. Smaller organizations with tight-knit workforces are particularly vulnerable because of the trust and empowerment given to employees.

Incorporating employee theft cases active in the U.S. federal court system in 2015, the study found that 69% represented companies with less than 500 employees. Perpetrators are often “regular people who are smart, well-liked, and those you’d least expect to steal,” according to Hiscox.

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 How does a trusted employee become a criminal?

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Motivations can range from financial pressure to a belief that they are underpaid by the company.

Employees with more tenure, access and control over finances are found to take the largest amounts. While the type of fraud can vary by industry, what is consistent is access to funds. In fact, managers were found more likely to steal than other employees.

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For the second year in a row, the greatest number of cases, 17%, was in the financial services industry and second was nonprofits at 16%. Labor unions ranked third, followed by real estate/construction. The largest scheme was a $7 million loss in Texas; followed by ones in Connecticut at $9 million, Ohio at $8.7 million and Utah at $4 million.

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Schemes include taking cash or bank deposits, forging checks, fraudulent credit card use, fake invoices and false billing of vendors and payroll fraud.

Companies can protect themselves in a number of ways, including putting checks and balances in place, performing background checks on employees who handle money and teaching employees how to detect fraud, according to Hiscox.

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The study findings also include:

Hiscox

June Commercial Insurance Rates Up 1%

The composite rate for commercial insurance placed in the United States rose to minus 1% in June from minus 2% in May, according to MarketScout. One of the most significant changes was rates for transportation accounts, which moved from minus 2% to plus 1%. Rates for every industry class, except habitation and transportation, moderated by 1%. Habitational rates were unchanged at minus 2%.

Industry class chart-1

Industry class list

“Insurers are getting tired of cutting rates,” said Richard Kerr, chief executive officer of MarketScout. “There are still pockets of very competitive business; however, it is beginning to look like insurers are willing to maintain the rate reductions of the past few years and not cut rates even further.

Coverage classifications business owners policies (BOP), umbrella and professional liability all moderated by 1%, compared to the prior month. EPLI rates were up 1% and commercial auto rates moved from flat to plus 2%.

coverage class list
By account size, medium (,001 to 0,000) and large (0,001 to ,000,000) accounts moderated to minus 1% and 2% respectively.

Rates remained the same for all other account sizes.

Account size

Brexit Creates Turmoil

Brexit
Britain’s unexpected vote to leave the European Union has left many unanswered questions, some of which may not be resolved for years as Britain and the EU iron out the details of the split. Meanwhile, in the wake of the announcement, oil prices dropped, global stock markets have taken a significant hit, the Euro and the British Pound plunged.

Fitch said today that overall, Britain’s decision is broadly “credit negative” for most U.K. sectors.

During a Eurasia Group conference call this morning, Europe associate Charles Lichfield asserted, “The U.K. has lost relevance to Washington.” In the past, he explained, the United States has worked closely with Britain on many European issues, but will now bolster relations with Germany, Spain and other countries, bypassing Britain.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The move triggered a selloff across markets dragging down the British poundcommodities and shares in U.K.-listed banks, utilities and oil-and gas companies including BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, whose shares fell 6.2% and 4.9%, respectively.

A spokesman for Shell said the company will work with the U.K. government and European institutions on navigating a British exit from the EU, known as Brexit. The Bank of England announced it was prepared to use its $371.85 billion war chest to stabilize the market.

The uncertainty in the marketplace after the referendum could hurt oil companies by exacerbating the already-challenging environment created by lower oil prices.

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In the aftermath of the vote, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to step down.

The referendum is expected to jolt the U.S. economy, likely driving up the value of the dollar.

Members of the insurance industry and their buyers are wondering what the impact on Lloyd’s and the London market will be. So far, Lloyd’s has maintained a cool façade.

“I am confident that Lloyd’s will stay at the center of the global specialist insurance and reinsurance sector, and I look forward to continuing our valuable relationship with our European partners,” Chairman John Nelson said in a statement on the vote. “For the next two years our business is unchanged.

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Lloyd’s has a well prepared contingency plan in place and Lloyd’s will be fully equipped to operate in the new environment.”

The Financial Times, however, expects the insurance sector to be “hit hard” by the vote and that the impact could have a negative impact on the London market.

According to the FT, “One of the big attractions to insurers of operating via Lloyd’s is that it has passporting rights into the EU. Many of the insurers who do business there at the moment say that after a Brexit they will simply shift some of their business to subsidiaries within the EU, bypassing the Lloyd’s market in the process.”

Brexit is also expected to have more impact on the life insurance market than property/casualty. “The impact on the non-life insurers was more muted, given that many of them have little cross-border business and hold very conservative investment portfolios.

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Shares in Direct Line, RSA and Admiral were all down in mid-single digits,” according to the FT.

Wildfires a Reminder to Update Disaster Preparedness Plans

Raging across the country, threatening businesses and residences alike, wildfires are a reality, burning a reported 1.

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9 million acres in the U.S. so far this year. West of Santa Barbara, firefighters have battled an intense fire for almost a week. Wildfires are also burning in Arizona and New Mexico. In Canada, the Fort McMurray blaze burned for weeks and scorched some 2,400 square miles of land—more than 1.4 million acres. In five of the past 10 years, in fact, wildfires have ranked among the top 20 worldwide loss events.

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Companies that haven’t already done so may want to assess the impact such a disaster could have on their business as well as what actions can be taken to mitigate damage.

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While most businesses believe they are prepared for a fire, especially if their building is equipped with fire alarms, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and an evacuation plan, these measures may not be enough when stress and confusion take over, according to Interstate.

Organizations could face utility interruption, impacting gas and phone syDocument recovery3stems; they may have flooding from sprinklers, which, mixed with soot, can cause other complications; there may be smoke damage, which can by carried throughout a building through air conditioning systems; and there can be chemical residue from fire suppression systems.

There also may be asbestos hazards from older building materials, ceiling and floor tiles and pipe insulation.

Planning ahead for data loss resulting from damaged computers and burned paper documents is also advised.

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Interstate lists four questions companies need to ask in advance of such a disaster:
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