Charges for seeing doctors and for prescription medicines in Iceland are set to increase on 1st January and the cost of ambulance transport for foreign tourists and those without state medical insurance is also set to increase Read the full story

Widespread damage to property occurred in the Faroe Islands yesterday evening and night, as a fierce Atlantic storm raged by. Read the full story

A fire at Turku University Hospital on Friday 2nd September was caused by a short circuit in out-of-date electrical cabling, according to reports. Read the full story

New ownership of the Icelandic insurance company Sjova does not mean the EFTA will stop its investigation into whether the government gave state subsidies to save the company, against European law. Read the full story

The board of VIS, one of Iceland’s biggest insurance companies, has granted Arnar Gunnarsson’s wish to be allowed to leave the post of company president. He will also leave his job as president of the Icelandic Life Assurance Company. Read the full story

The Central Bank of Iceland now owns 73 percent of the Sjova insurance company, it was revealed in parliament today. Read the full story

Danish insurance companies are planning to force up insurance premiums on the grounds that climate change is costing them money. Read the full story

On  September  5, 2009 , Bloomberg reported that the Mitsubishi Corp. internet shopping unit lost credit card details on 52,000 customers after its servers were hacked from overseas. In July 2009, the Japanese Insurance firm Alico said the suspected leak of its customers’ credit card information may have led to about 2,200 cases of credit card fraud. The company mentioned that credit card information related to up to 130,000 insurance contracts may have leaked. Read the full story

The Insurance Company of the Faroe Islands (TF) aims to be operational in Iceland before the end of 2009. Edvard Heen, the company CEO, announced his intention at a press conference in Reykjavik on Tuesday. He went so far as to say that those in charge of the company had been investigating a move into the Icelandic market since 2007. Real movement came in August 2008 and a formal decision was made at the board meeting two weeks ago. Read the full story

Chairman Antoine Bernheim may not be convinced, but rumour is that Assicurazioni Generali, the biggest and one of the most important insurance firms in Italy, is considering expanding its operations into Norway or Sweden, according to Reuters.

Bernheim is reportedly reluctant to enter into any large acquisitions at present. “We’re looking at the possibility of having a small position in the northern countries, in Sweden and Norway,” he was quoted by La Tribune as saying.

“I’m not convinced that a very big acquisition is opportune at the moment,” he said.

Bernheim reassured the public that Generali was not facing any financial difficulties but predicted that declining stock markets across the world would impact insurers in general.

“I don’t know the figures for Generali yet but the consequences won’t be enormous,” he said.

The group is currently aiming for a net profit of €3.8 billion for 2009, a target which has been made “even more ambitious” by the current economic turbulence, Bernheim said.

Assicurazioni Generali is the largest insurance company in Italy and was founded in 1831. Although the company’s primary markets are in Europe, the Middle East and East Asia, it has large market shares in Israel, Switzerland and Japan. It is currently the world’s fifth largest insurance company.