All Backchat articles – Page 22
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Backchat
Sheila seeks comfort from Tubby hubby
When Backchat revealed that Sheilas’ Wheels buxom brunette Emma Robbins was married to a Teletubby, few thought it would be Tinky Winky. Robbins, who met Simon Shelton – aka “the purple one with the handbag” – when casting for a Cliff Richard tour, said it was love at first sight. ...
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Backchat
Direct Line challenge
Moneysupermarket is putting out a challenge to Direct Line. The aggre-gator giant has invited the insurer to join its panel – for free. Moneysupermarket said it wants to smooth over a longstanding anti-aggregator battle with the direct insurer by showing the benefits of being on a price comparison site.Typically, insurers ...
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Backchat
Cila’s no surprise for Brandreth
Gyles Brandreth, the one-time Conservative MP and notorious wearer of loud coloured jumpers, impressed the great and good of the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (Cila) at its annual lunch last week. Among the Cila crests and insignia, Brandreth apologised that he thought the Cila dinner was in honour of ...
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Backchat
‘Fat Gatt’ tucks in but bails out
It is always a pleasure to watch top class cricketers at the peak of their game. Unfortunately, for one legend of the English game, his cricket skills seem to have somewhat deserted him over the years. At the launch of Brit’s Manchester trading floor last week, Mike Gatting, or Fat ...
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Backchat
Lights out – bah humbug
The insurance industry may find a lump of coal in its collective stocking this year, following reports of Grinch-like behaviour.Warnings of a Christmas blackout came from business associations this week after new regulations and insurance premiums reportedly increased the price of town festive displays to as much as £25,000.Businesses in ...
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Backchat
The taste of victory
Brokers will go to extreme and innovative lengths to win business, Backchat hears this week. A national broker pitched for the business of a well-known chain of sandwich bars. At the start, the sales team played a DVD in which the broker boss sends his apologies for not being present, ...
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Backchat
Ticking off the goodwill
There’s a ticking time bomb within the industry. And, according to Marsh Corporate Consulting, it’s about to explode.As the FSA’s deadline to remove goodwill from broker accounts moves inexorably closer, a clock on Marsh’s website (www.mccltd.co.uk/handn.htm) counts down every second to the point of no return, namely 14 January 2008.
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Backchat
Bollington reunites old buddies
The insurance industry is a small world, as Bollington found during its recent acquisition of Greystone.The event was significant in more ways than one. Not only was it the broker’s first acquisition since the Groupama investment, but Backchat can reveal that Bollington director Paul Moors and Greystone MD Dominic Leach ...
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Backchat
Blonde Fiona fronts Equity’s travel product
Equity’s new travel insurance product for breast cancer sufferers is receiving considerable exposure in the national media.And much of its success is due to the marketing brains behind the scheme, Equity’s Fiona Macrae. An interview on The Jeremy Vine Show and a spread on page three of The Sun (the ...
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Backchat
Life after the sound-bite
Towergate’s ambitions were momentarily, sensationally and mistakenly unveiled to Backchat at the Biba regional conference in Leeds last week. Despite reading from the programme, the compere of the event made a small (but potentially fatal) error when introducing Andy Homer, chief executive of the broking behemoth. Having informed the attendees ...
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Backchat
Flood plans submerged
Backchat was keen to learn of the latest efforts to equip insurers with data to model flooding and manage flood risk. But if names are anything to go by, the government-sponsored programme – the Atlantis Initiative – could end up dead in the water.The project is designed to foster collaboration ...
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Backchat
Wisdom of the elders
Backchat was honoured to speak to a stalwart of the insurance industry this week. A man, who in 1937 at the age of 16, got his first job at a small insurance company, before heading off to war.Now, after 70 years in the sector, and still with no plans to ...
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Backchat
From baby buggy to Bentley
The streets could soon be awash with Bentley-driving teenagers, research by Peart Insurance Brokers has warned.Over the past 18 months the average age of a Bentley, Aston Martin or Ferrari owner has fallen by 10 years, from 45 to 35. Underwriting and agency manager Brian Gent says: “Until recently it ...
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Backchat
Smoke alarm at detector factory
Smoke alarms at the BRK factory in Gloucester caught fire, forcing employees to barricade themselves in their offices.The fire destroyed 35,000 smoke detectorsThe Environment Agency has been scanning piles of the burnt-out detectors for radioactivity. Oh the irony.
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Backchat
Addressing the the issue of letters
Royal & SunAliance (R&SA) appears to be doing all it can to embrace the so-called IT revolution. While some are looking for ways to encourage paperless transactions, R&SA has gone one better by implicitly discouraging the use of letters. A bulletin issued to customer account handlers regarding changes to credit ...
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Backchat
Join the SAAga
It’s all in a name. Forget billions of pounds of refinanced debt, reinventing the wheel (or at least the motor panel), and a rampaging army of worried pensioners, the question on Backchat’s lips following the merger of Saga and the AA was what the new brand name would be. ...
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Backchat
Tea à deux sparks rumours
Is ousted AA Insurance boss Kevin Sinclair set to join Groupama? Backchat’s spies spotted Sinclair lunching with none other than the French insurer’s managing director, François Xavier-Bousseau only days before his exit from the motoring giant. Was a job offer on the menu? If it happens, you heard it here ...
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Backchat
Towergate deal: a French fancy
In the wake of Towergate’s audacious purchase of Open International, Backchat bumped into the chief of a certain French-owned broker. The broker boss was grinning from ear to ear at mention of the deal. Why was he so pleased at the rival’s headline-grabbing purchase? “It takes the spotlight off me,” ...
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Backchat
Willis home cooking
In an attempt to get families to gather round the table at dinner time, Willis has developed a new recipe for success: the imaginatively named Willis Family Day Recipe Book.The move has been made in association with America’s seventh Family Day – a day to eat dinner with your children ...
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Backchat
From Bentley to scooter, via the MID
A man’s car is his pride and joy. So when Backchat learned of the embarrassment suffered by a senior insurance figure with a senior car to match, it felt obliged to share it with the rest of the insurance world.The Motor Insurance Database (MID) has a website, www.askmid.com, where car ...
