45. AA Underwriting Services (Centrica)

AA Underwriting Services

Gross written premiums less treaty (2000): £39.3m

Address:
Norfolk House
Priestly Road
Basingstoke
Hampshire
RG24 9NY
Tel: 0870 544 88 66
Fax: 01256 492 557
Website: www.theaa.com

History: The AA first sold motor insurance as a service to members in 1907 - 23 years before British motorists were legally obliged to have it. But in the 1950s and 1960s, a number of cut-price insurance companies that had sprung up ceased trading, with serious consequences for policyholders. Motorists turned to the AA for help and the AA Insurance Services was formed in 1967.

Chief officer: Kerry Richardson, managing director of AA Personal Finance
Biography: Kerry Richardson was appointed group management services director of the AA in August 1989. He was elected an executive member of the AA committee in 1991, becoming responsible for the management of the corporate group, which includes all internal service functions as well as group policy, strategy and governance.

In January 1997, he was appointed managing director of two major AA businesses - Insurance and Financial Services - while retaining responsibility for group information technology. In 1998, he was appointed managing director AA Business when his role was extended to cover all the AA's commercial business. Following the acquisition of the AA by Centrica, he is now managing director of AA Personal Finance

Main classes of general insurance business: Motor, home, commercial, vehicle, motorcycle and travel.

Notes: AA Underwriting excluded - ceased trading 04/08/98