Latest France Headlines

All the headlines from our France Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Notre Dame Restoration Halted by France’s Coronavirus Lockdown

Apr 20 2020 // Notre Dame Cathedral stands crippled and alone, locked in a dangerous web of warped scaffolding one year after a cataclysmic fire gutted its interior, toppled its famous spire and horrified the world.Some of the 40,000...

Amazon Shuts Warehouses in France over Worker Safety During COVID-19 Crisis

Apr 17 2020 // Amazon has no clarity yet on when its warehouses in France might reopen, the head of its French business said on Thursday, after the e-commerce giant clashed with unions over the measures taken to limit the risks of...

French Insurers to Contribute $216M to Coronavirus Solidarity Fund for Businesses

Mar 23 2020 // French insurance lobby FFA said on Monday insurers would contribute up to 200 million euros ($216 million) to funds set up by the government to help companies deal with a significant drop in activity due to the coronavirus...

European Insurers’ Coronavirus BI Claims Likely to Be Limited: Moody’s, ABI

Mar 20 2020 // Insurers in the UK, France and Germany are likely to face only moderate business interruption (BI) claims as a result of the coronavirus outbreak because pandemic-related claims are excluded from most business interruption...

Coronavirus Drives Patients to Online Doctors, Spurring Telemedicine Sector

Mar 13 2020 // The new coronavirus that’s forcing lockdowns and roiling economies is spurring a silent revolution in the field of telemedicine.As COVID-19 spreads across Europe, leaving new patients in its wake, the fear of...

French Court Deals Blow to Uber by Giving Drivers Employee Status

Mar 5 2020 // France’s top court has recognized the right of an Uber driver to be considered an employee, a ruling that could upend the U.S. firm’s business model and potentially require it to pay more taxes and benefits...

EXOR to Sell PartnerRe to French Insurer Covea for $9 Billion

Mar 4 2020 // EXOR has agreed to sell PartnerRe to French mutual insurer Covéa, a move that is turning out to be a very profitable thing for the Italian investment firm.EXOR bought the Bermuda-based reinsurer in March 2016 for $6.72...

Arch Capital to Buy 29.5% Stake in French Credit Insurer Coface

Feb 25 2020 // Arch Capital Group Ltd. has entered into a share purchase agreement with Natixis regarding the acquisition of a 29.5% stake in Coface, a France-based trade credit insurer.The transaction will be completed at a price of...

Insured Losses for Europe’s Storm Ciara-Sabine Could Hit $2 Billion: Modeling Firms

Feb 14 2020 // Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimates that insured losses due to wind from Europe’s winter storm Ciara (also known as Sabine) will range between €1.1 billion and €1.9 billion (US$1.2 billion and...

Storm Ciara Batters Europe with Hurricane-Force Winds, Killing at Least 5 People

Feb 11 2020 // A strong winter storm that has battered Europe with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains and killed at least five people moved eastward Monday, causing severe travel disruptions across the continent.After striking Britain...

Italian Investor Group Exor Weighs Sale of PartnerRe to France’s Covea

Feb 9 2020 // Investment group Exor, which controls carmaker Fiat Chrysler, is in exclusive talks to sell reinsurer PartnerRe to France’s Covea in a deal one source familiar with the matter said was worth around $9 billion.Exor,...

Researchers Create Extreme Weather Early Warning System from ‘Obsolete’ Tool

Feb 6 2020 // Rice University engineers have created a deep learning computer system that taught itself to accurately predict extreme weather events, like heat waves, up to five days in advance using minimal information about current...

Airlines Under Pressure to Halt Flights to China; Update on Cancellations

Jan 31 2020 // Pilots and flight attendants are demanding airlines stop flights to China as health officials declare a global emergency over the rapidly spreading coronavirus, with American Airlines’ pilots filing a lawsuit seeking...

Brexit Day Is Finally Here; Now the Hard Part Begins: Opinion

Jan 30 2020 // London and Brussels are two hours apart by train but on Friday, the day the U.K. officially leaves the European Union, the two cities will feel worlds apart.The Brits are planning a Brexit celebration worthy of a...

Oil Giant Total Sued by 14 French Cities, NGOs over Failure to Cut Carbon Emissions

Jan 28 2020 // Oil giant Total SA is being sued by 14 local governments and a handful of non-governmental organizations in France for not doing enough to reduce its carbon emissions and fight global warming.The legal challenge is the...

J.C. Flowers Considers Sale of Its French Loan Insurance Broker CEP

Jan 23 2020 // J.C. Flowers & Co, the U.S. investment and financial services-focused private equity firm, is reviving plans for a potential sale of its French loan insurance broker Financiere CEP, according to people familiar with...

Chubb Names Côté as Head of Major Accts, Europe; Brionne as France Country President

Jan 16 2020 // Chubb announced a series of changes to its European leadership team: a new head of Major Accounts for Europe; a new country president for France and a new director of Accident & Health Continental Europe.Nadia Côté...

BGC Insurance’s Aerospace Broker Rebrands as ‘Piiq Risk’ with Spate of Key Hires

Jan 7 2020 // BGC Insurance Group (BGCI), a global broker and division of BGC Partners Inc., announced it has rebranded its global aerospace re/insurance brokerage as Piiq Risk Partners.Since the division was launched during the second...

Moody’s Sees Low Interest Rates Hurting French P/C Insurers’ Profits in 2020

Dec 12 2019 // The 2020 outlook for the French insurance sector is negative, reflecting growing pressures on the property/casualty insurers’ profitability from low interest rates, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report....

France to Require Insurers, Banks to Run Climate Change Stress Tests in 2020

Dec 2 2019 // France’s financial regulator will subject banks and insurers to climate change stress tests next year, central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Friday.Investors are increasingly putting pressure on...