In South Africa, there hasn’t been much positive news recently for the insurance industry. New business margins and volumes remain under pressure, load shedding remains pervasive, and business confidence and activity are low. Yet some positive news hints at signs of the bottom. In this report, we discuss: 

• The next wave of mortality improvements
• A tool for modelling physical climate risk launched by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority
• Catastrophe risk that is causing some U.S. insurers to halt new business sales
• Preemptive recovery planning
• Retrenchment risk considerations for solvency capital requirements, published by the Actuarial Society of South Africa