Consolidated sales up at Coface
Consolidated sales up at Coface
Consolidated sales at Coface, the Paris-listed international credit insurance group, have increased for the six months to June by 14.9% to e472m (£298.8m), from e410.7m (£260m) during the same period last year.
Underlying pre-tax profit improved 11.9% to e66m (£41.8m) from e51.7m (£32.7m), while net earnings per share rose almost 10% to e2.3 (146p) from e2.09 (132p).
The group said the terrorist attacks in the US had had no direct consequences on its staff or on the risks it insures.
Sirius extends its market presence
Sirius Financial Systems (SFS) has announced an initiative, in conjunction with its insurer partners, to increase its market presence and to supply more EDI and guaranteed products to its broker base.
The group said it planned to add another 20 to 40 guaranteed products to the 230 currently on offer by the end of the year.
Bollington launches new site
The Bollington Group, the independent insurance intermediary, has launched a new website to reflect the developments at the company during the past 12 months.
Bollington said although the site was intended as an insurance and financial services industry resource for business-to-business communications, it would also pro-vide an insight to its employees and its services.
Time to appeal to young people
Graduates cannot find information about insurance careers and are not steered toward the industry by internet recruitment services.
Cornhill Insurance human resources executive Philip Gennoy told a training workshop that graduates were not aware of insurance as a career. He said insurance was “competing at the same entry points for the same talent as other industries”, but attracted a low number of graduates.
“We have to raise the profile of insurance as a career and make graduates aware of what we can provide,” he said.
However, Gennoy admitted his first impression of the insurance industry had been that it was “paternalistic and unchallenging” to many employees.
Knowledge key to good tech
If systems designers don't understand insurance, they won't create the right technology solutions for the industry, IT firm TCA Consulting told CII delegates at a workshop on wealth management.
TCA spokesman Tim Stedman said: “Our people come from insurance and understand what it is that makes a company run. If you don't understand the manual system, you won't get the value out of a technology solution.”
He said there were three barriers to prospering in the insurance sector – products, technology and operations.
