The Times today revealed a 1983 report into Michael Bright's business practise whilst running Lombard. The report, undertaken by Insurance Solvency International (ISI), a firm of analysts that later became part of Standard & Poors, warned that reserves were kept dangerously low and described Lombard as “non-viable because of under reserving”.
This report reared its head again in the early 1990s, when Garth Ramsay and Sir Ian Noble approached ISI to advise them on the launch of an insurance company and announced that Bright would be joining the party to launch Independent Insurance. A former ISI director told The Times that despite the report's findings, “they did not agree with me and I then left.”
