Airmic lecture rescheduled

Airmic lecture rescheduled
The UK Association of Insurance and Risk Managers will be holding its annual lecture on 12 February. The lecture, which was rescheduled following flooding and travel problems in October, will be given by Sir Clive Thompson and will be held at the RAC Club, Pall Mall, London. Please note that the date for the lecture given in our sister publication Strategic Risk is incorrect.


RFIB buys in
The management of Robert Fleming Insurance Brokers (RFIB) is to acquire the controlling interest in it currently held by Chase Manhattan. The transaction, which is subject to RFIB shareholder approval, is expected to be completed in January 2001.


Jerrum goes
Tifco managing director Ian Jerrum and finance director Kevin O'Flanagan are believed to be the first casualties of the take-over by Prompt. Bob Golden, Prompt's chief executive, said that both men were not going into work and negotiations were continuing regarding roles in Prompt or redundancy packages for them. Golden said there would be no redundancies at Tifco in the next three months.

Allies in bid to develop
De Montfort Insurance and CNA Surety Corporation have formed a strategic alliance to develop and promote their bond and credit insurance activities in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
De Montfort and CNA Surety came together at the same time as shareholder succession in the De Montfort group was under active consideration. Structurally, the management of De Montfort Insurance has joined with CNA Surety and formed De Montfort Group to acquire the whole of the share capital of De Montfort Holdings who, in turn, owns De Montfort Insurance.

IT goes solo
Insurance Times has decided to go it alone and host its own awards under its own brand name next year. The Insurance Times Awards will be held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole on December 7, 2001. The move follows several years of the successful Insurance Industry Awards, run in partnership with the IIB. That partnership has now ended. Insurance Times managing director Jonathan Shephard said: “We have had a good relationship with the IIB for several years. We have now reached a stage where our ambitions to produce the outstanding awards event will best be met by going solo.”


It's a risky business
January 13 could be unlucky for some public sector risk managers.
It is the cut-off date for entering the Association of Local Authority Risk Managers (Alarm) Awards for the best risk management schemes of 2000. There is also a new Risk Manager of the Year category, which will net the winner a place on Alarm's exchange programme with US risk management organsation Prima. The awards will be presented at the Alarm annual conference, which will be held in Coventry from April 8 to 10.

Hutton new NCC chairman
Deirdre Hutton, currently vice-chairman of the National Consumer Council (NCC), has been promoted to chairman. Hutton will play a key role in repositioning the NCC as the leading UK centre for analysis and policy development on consumer affairs. The council aims to develop more of a think tank role, concentrating on disadvantaged consumers, and strengthening its links with other consumer bodies and the grass roots. Hutton succeeds David Hatch, who has been chairman since 1996.

Acquisition confirmed
Cassidy Davis, the Lloyd's division of St Paul's, has confirmed the acqusition of Lutine Assurance Services. The news follows an announcement in October of the group's intention to purchase the company. Lutine Assurance Services was formed in 1989 as a marketing and ditribution company for a consortium of Lloyd's life syndicates. It offers a range of term life products to brokers.


Hidden costs at the workplace
THE equivalent of more than 20,000 working years are lost every year as a result of workplace accidents, according to Marsh. The hidden cost of workplace accidents was revealed at a conference on employment risk held by the risk management and insurance firm at Milton Keynes. Andrew Welch, from the employment risk services division of Marsh, said: “Employment risk is anything that adversely affects productivity, staff turnover and the performance of employees and has a consequential effect on competitiveness.” The conference in Milton Keynes was attended by more than 70 delegates from industries as diverse as publishing, food processing, manufacturing and motor trade.


Second time round covered
PARTIES to legal proceedings can now obtain cover for the cost of a rehearing. Judicial delay insurance indemnifies the insured for their proven net loss of additional costs and expenses incurred should a rehearing of the case be necessary.Circumstances where a rehearing may occur include disability or legal disqualification of the insured party. The cover is underwritten by London-based Opinion Insurance Services.


A magical web service
A business-to-business web service has been launched to enable companies to talk to their customers online.Helpmagic.com offers around-the-clock live text chat, voice-over internet protocol, email, call back and search. In addition to the B2B solution, Helpmagic offers a full IT support package to PC users (small business, homeworkers). The website's parent company, Merlin Information Systems, offers call centre, help desk, systems management and technical support.


Easy tracking for tractors
New and old Massey Ferguson tractors are to be fitted with the vehicle tracking system Navtrak.
The AGCO corporation, which owns Massey Ferguson, has struck a deal with Navtrak to attach the tracking system to all its agricultural and commercial vehicles through its 128 UK dealerships. If a tractor is stolen, the farmer informs Navtrak's control centre that then locates the missing vehicle via digital mapping and informs the police of its position.


An expensive recovery
A Mercedes Benz worth £85,000 topped the 75 cars recovered by Tracker, the vehicle tracking system, in November.There were also eight other types of stolen vehicles located by the system, and the police have made four arrests. So far, Tracker has recovered 5,065 vehicles worth more than £87m. There have been 1,209 arrests.


Remote system for security
A Halesowen-based security design centre system has launched a new CCTV remote management and
security (Remas) system. With recent European legislation on minimum wages and reduced working hours, the cost of onsite security has spiralled. The Remas system enables CCTV images to be recorded locally and transmitted to a 24-hour remote monitoring control centre.


New column
Theodore Agnew, chairman of motor claims administrators Town & Country Assistance, will be writing a new column for claims focus from January. He replaces long-running columnist Tony Howe, managing director of Collegiate group.

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