All Backchat articles – Page 25
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Backchat
The fastest thinning broker’s African pledge
The less fortunate and well fed in Africa have benefited from a fat broker becoming much thinner in the UK, Backchat sources report.Phil Bunker and his ABC Insurance team recently challenged Paul Cosh, managing director of Hero Insurance Services, to lose weight and Cosh, determined to shed the ...
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Backchat
Sants in running for Tiner’s role
With John Tiner due to step down as FSA boss within weeks, the market is wondering who will replace him as regulator-in-chief.The FSA has been typically tight-lipped about his replacement, but sources point to Hector Sants, head of the FSA’s wholesale arm as being the leading candidate.With his background in ...
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Backchat
Turd party insurance
It seems there’s nothing these days that insurers won’t cover.While most are tapping into wind and solar insurance to cash in on the current craze of renewable energy, one canny insurer has gone that bit further in taking advantage of the growing sector.Chicken poo. Yes, that would be poo from ...
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Zurich in deep water
Severe flooding may have wreaked havoc across the Midlands and northern England, but there’s nothing like a good bit of irony to lessen the tension.While thousands begin the clear up and insurers meet ministers over the £1.5bn cost of claims, Guy Munnoch, from ‘because change happenz’ Zurich, has astutely pointed ...
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Claims firm makes the wrong call
Some claims management companies are taking longer than others to get to grips with the new regulatory regime. Mark Boleat, the government’s claims regulator, told delegates at the Insurance Times Future of Personal Injury Conference last week, how one claims management company ran into a spot of very hot water ...
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Join our panel and earn a range of benefits
Are you a proprietor, chief executive, managing director or other senior executive of an independent broking firm? Insurance Times – the voice of the independent broker – is looking to widen its senior executive broking panel, a select group that collectively advises the editor on topical issues of concern in ...
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One word, two syllables. Aon?
Aon’s 1980s-themed summer press party at the Museum of Brands saw a revival of TV’s favourite old game show Give us a clue.The likes of Lionel Blair and Una Stubbs were replaced by Aon brokers and hacks who fought hard in a fierce battle of gesticulations and curious poses. Aon’s ...
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New Lloyd’s settles on a pin head
Lloyd’s is regarded as the pre-eminent insurance market, with a massive reputation across the globe. One renowned micro-sculptor, Willard Wigan, has created a replica of the Lloyd’s building to the exact precision and proportion of the real thing, but sitting on the head of a pin.The meticulous effort has been ...
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NU hit by tennis glass war
Norwich Union has warned youngsters to beware of errant forehands, and pay less attention to summer fruits. As Wimbledon fever takes a grip, the insurer has urged consumers to “forget strawberries and cream,” and pay heed instead to “Federer fever”. Last year the insurer payed out a cool £4.3m in ...
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Backchat
Shrinking the big boys
While Phil Bunker and his ABC Insurance team are helping smaller brokers to grow, it seems they’re doing it by taking some weight off the ‘big’ brokers.Bunker recently challenged Paul Cosh, managing director of Hero Insurance Services, to reduce his size. Well, Cosh was already on a diet and ...
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Backchat
NIG battles the Buttery
NIG is set to face a showdown with one of Glasgow’s oldest and most celebrated restaurants, The Buttery.The restaurant is set to take the RBS-owned insurance company to the Financial Ombudsman Service after it suffered a catastrophic fire in December 2006, resulting in its closure. The Buttery alleges that NIG ...
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Backchat
Now women can use Sheilas’ heels
Readers with long memories may remember Sheilas’ Wheels’ blow-up doll passenger. Well, hot on the heels (pun, unfortunately, intended) of that marvel, comes Sheilas’ Wheels’ latest creation for the gal about town, the Sheila Driving Heel. An invention perhaps more at home in the Dragon’s Den than in the office, ...
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A lack of courtesy
Direct Line may have few friends in the aggregator world, but should the roving hordes descend, at least it will have a speedy getaway.Welsh aggregator Gocompare.com turned up at the insurer’s head offices with a courtesy car, highlighting the fact that Direct Line’s standard policies do not include the use ...
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Lloyd’s to go sports casual?
The next step in Lloyd’s modernisation process could be…a change to the market’s dress code. Yes, chief executive Richard Ward is looking at slackening Lloyd’s strict requirements of suit and tie once the market goes electronic.So it’s off with the three piece and on with the sports jacket and chinos, ...
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Bursting Barney’s bubble
The insurance industry faced ridicule this week when it emerged that a clown was unable to obtain insurance cover owing to his use of, wait for it, not knives, or a cannon, but bubbles.Barney Baloney, real name, Tony Turner, was told by his insurer that he must stop using a ...
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Backchat
Reserves lost their sparkle
It was a curious tale of insurance, gemstones and the FSA. David King, the insurance entrepreneur who was banned from the City for life this week, based his insurance businesses on a claimed $63m stash of rubies, sapphires and corporate bonds in a New Orleans vault. He also relied on ...
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Backchat
New French connection
As the controversy continues in the insurance market over the question of insurers buying brokers, Backchat has tapped into a vein of relief in relation to the latest moves in this area.Following Groupama’s acquisition last week of a majority stake in commercial broker Bollington, one Francophile broker quipped: “At last, ...
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Backchat
Conflict over family relations
Acquisitions are never easy things to do. Once the deal is finally done there’s the job of soothing egos and making room for everyone to play happy families.One recent broker acquisition, however, has trumped the lot causing more problems and a lot more confusion before the ink on the contract ...
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Backchat
Aggregator cashes up
One of the founders of aggregator giant Moneysupermarket .com has made a cool £162m from the sale of his stake in the business. Ferrari-driving Duncan Cameron had stepped back from running the business, becoming a silent partner, amid reports of a falling-out with co-founder Simon Nixon. While Moneysupermarket, which is ...
