Last week, Backchat was amused and admonished at the same time when he received a ticking off from Axa boss Andy Homer.

The crime: calling his company the ‘French insurer' since its take-over of British rival Guardian last year.

Andy wrote: “If you are so keen on referring to Axa Insurance as a French insurer, I suggest you go for some kind of consistency in your journalism and use equally fine tuned descriptors for German insurer Cornhill, Swiss insurer Zurich etc. (Got the message?)”

Fair go Andy, we are sorry and didn't mean to get on your nerves.

But the letter got Backchat wondering whether any other organisations get upset at our “descriptors”.

What about the “fledgling” regulator GISC? How long will Chris Woodburn et al stand for that? Or Marsh, which would probably prefer to describe itself as a risk management specialist to the rest of the universe, instead of plain old “broker”.


The 2025 Insurance Times Awards took place on the evening of Wednesday 3rd December in the iconic Great Room of London’s Grosvenor House.

Hosted by comedian and actor Tom Allen, 34 Gold, 23 Silver and 22 Bronze awards were handed out across an amazing 34 categories recognising brilliance and innovation right across the breadth of UK general insurance.
Many congratulations to all the worthy winners and as always, huge thanks to our sponsors for their support and our judges for their expertise.

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