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Insurance is a dynamic business highly affected by the environment it operates in. Alongside the practice of insurance, come principles on which the business of insurance is based. One of the principles, that is not short of controversy, is the doctrine of utmost good faith which requires full disclosure of material facts by the contracting parties. The author, in this chapter, explored the need for change in the regulation of this insurance principle and discussed the drivers behind these changes and the commensurate effect on the practice of insurance. The author delved into case studies, practices and literature and traced back to the origins of the long-standing principle of utmost good faith. This principle is one on which the acceptance (or otherwise) and premium of an insurance contract is based and through which certain factors and developments in the industry have led to a major reform in some jurisdiction.

The author discussed the development and drivers leading to reform and concluded that reform is ultimately the result of public outcry, through individual cases heard predominantly in court, a well-established reform committee, the socio-political environment of that country and the advent of technology. Moreover, although, different countries have their own jurisdictions, laws and regulations as well as market practices and international trade have made it imperative to have common technical practices between market players especially in insurance, which depends on the spread of risks between countries internationally. Smooth insurance business can only be established if this reform is harmonised between jurisdictions.

Insurance in Malta has been very largely influenced by English practice and law. The influence of the English market insurance practice and law not only shaped the Maltese market but practically that of all common law jurisdictions in former members of the British empire. Since the London insurance market continues to be a very dominant force globally until today, the connection has undoubtedly served Malta well.

The origins of UK insurance principles of utmost good faith and insurable interest under contract law, date back to times which were very different from today and the need to revise the laws has now been felt in the UK as well as in other jurisdictions which were influenced by its law and practice. In Malta, minimal legislative intervention and the Maltese courts were and continue to be mostly guided by English case law, some of which has now been superseded by the updated statute law which was recently introduced in the UK by virtue of the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act (2012) and Insurance Act (2015).

We herein lay out a case study of the development of utmost good faith and insurable interest in insurance contracts within the Maltese legal context, based on empirical literature findings and semi-structured interviews together with several legal experts who are specialized in the field and experienced insurance professionals.

This article explores how legal intermediaries facilitate or inhibit social change. We suggest the increasing complexity and ambiguity of legal rules coupled with the shift from government to governance provide legal intermediaries greater opportunities to influence law and social change. Drawing from new institutional sociology, we suggest rule-intermediaries shape legal and social change, with varying degrees of success, in two ways: (1) law is filtered through non-legal logics emanating from various organizational fields and (2) law is professionalized by non-legal professionals. We draw from case studies in the United States and France to show how intermediaries facilitate or inhibit social change.

Purpose: A cyber insurance policy’s purpose is to help in the recovering of a person or corporation following a cyber breach and to compensate for civil suit expenses stemming from first- and third-party responsibility claims.

Methodology: The usage of cybersecurity spending has forecast a variety of security categories using F&S projection methodology. Each of these is suited to the end-user organisations of in-scope security mechanisms, as well as the particular market circumstances. Critical national infrastructure (CNI), immigration control, big events, first responding, executive branch, infrastructure, and transportation security are among the worldwide forecast categories. This segmentation is further subdivided into 16 subsegments, each with its own security forecasting system. F&S protection marketplaces are anticipated using a bottom-up technique for each nation, which adds up to worldwide market penetration. This covers 177 nations spread throughout seven zones.

Findings: The cybersecurity insurer industry was valued at USD 7.36 billion in 2020 and is predicted to be worth USD 27.83 billion by 2026, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.30% during the forecast time frame (2021–2026). The expanding use of digitalisation innovations such as the cloud, big data, mobile computing, internet of things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) across more lines of employment and society, as well as improved connectivity, have enhanced the burden of already overburdened information technology (IT) staff.

Practical implications: Accepted the innovative Insurance Data Security Model Law (#668), which necessitates insurance providers and other agencies registered by government insurance agencies to advance, integrate, and establish an information security management system; start investigating any cybersecurity events; and advise the private insurance superintendent of such happenings. Too far, the approach has been embraced by governorates.

Insurance is a contract whereby one party (the policyholder) promises and makes a payment or series of payments in exchange for the second party’s (the insurance company’s) promise to indemnify the policyholder for losses covered under the terms of the policy. Perhaps it is easier to just think of insurance as a transaction where the policyholder trades small regular losses (the premium paid) for large and irregular gains (claims proceeds).

While it may seem somewhat disproportionate to devote an entire chapter to more detailed treatment of a single risk financing tool, insurance has a very large impact, not only in terms of its intrinsic value, but also in terms of the many ways in which insurance influences risk management thinking and practice. As will be shown, some of this influence is waning and in other cases it could be argued that insurance ‘thinking’ has hindered efforts to respond to facts on the ground and the ability to adapt the role of risk management in organisations.

To provide a useful discussion, this chapter will cover both the products that the insurance industry offers and the structure of the industry itself, along with addressing legal and regulatory matters that were touched upon in Chapter Nine. The chapter concludes with an overview of public sector insurance issues that provides a basis for understanding alternatives to insurance that have emerged in dramatic fashion in recent decades – which in turn provides a basis for considering some of the constraints that insurance imposes on risk management practice.

Most women seeking abortion pay out-of-pocket for care, partly due to legal restrictions on insurance coverage. These costs can constitute a hardship for many women. Advocates have sought to ensure insurance coverage for abortion, but we do not know whether the intermediaries between policy and patient – abortion-providing facilities – are able and willing to accept insurance.

We interviewed 22 abortion facility administrators, representing 64 clinical sites in 21 states that varied in their legal allowance of public and private insurance coverage for abortion, about their facility’s insurance practices, and experiences.

Respondents described challenges in accepting public and/or private insurance that included, but were not limited to, legal regulations. When public insurance broadly covered abortion, its low reimbursement failed to cover the costs of care. Because of the predominance of low income patients in abortion care, this caused financial challenges for facilities, leading one in a state that allows broad coverage to nonetheless decline public insurance. Accepting private insurance carried its own risks, including nonpayment because costs fell within patients’ deductibles. Respondents described work-arounds to protect their facility from nonpayment and enable patients to use their private insurance.

The structure of insurance and the population of abortion patients mean that changes at the political level may not translate into changes in individual women’s experience of paying for abortion.

This research illustrates how legal regulations, insurer practices, and the socioeconomics of the patient population matter for abortion-providing facilities’ decision-making about accepting insurance.