Robinson bats for other side

Robinson bats for other side
Steve Robinson, managing director of premiums finance house Prompt for seven years, has defected to rival Premium Credit where he becomes joint managing director. His colleague Rob Fry, formerly sales director at Prompt, becomes director of development.

Review for Ogden
The Lord Chancellor's department has received 100 representations on its review of the Ogden discount rate for lump sum compensation awards. The discount rate currently stands at 3% but the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers would like it reduced to 2%. A spokeswoman said the Lord Chancellor would set a new rate before parliament rises for the summer in July.

Primary bid for Munich Re
Giant reinsurer Munich Re announced in its results this week that it is seeking to move into primary insurance armed with a £1bn war chest. The reinsurer currently holds a £19.5bn stake in German insurer Allianz. As a result of selling 5% of that stake, Munich Re will have £1bn available to attack the primary insurance market.

Premium grows
The mortgage premium protection market enjoyed £8m growth in 1999, the ABI's latest figures show. Specialist insurer Paymentshield accounted for 27% of the growth alone with premium income growing £3m. Premium income has risen to £392m in 1999 compared to £384m in 1998.

Car on offer
Brokers FMW is raffling a brand new HSE Range Rover at the Institute of Logistics and Transport conference in Birmingham on June 13 to 15. To enter the competition, delegates must crack the code of the safe at FMW's stand number 168. The vehicle will be given away by Chelmsford-based car dealers Lookers.

IT spending not at top levels
Only 7% of the London insurance market says they have their ecommerce strategy under control, reveals a survey by technology group CMG. Figures showed 31% believe ecommerce is the most pressing issue facing their industry but only half say that 50% of their annual premium income is spent on IT infrastructure and services. Under a third felt they were equipped to electronically possess risk as the best deployment of internet technology.

Sick note is worth £10.5bn
Sick days are draining the UK economy of an estimated £10.5bn a year, finds a survey by PPP Healthcare and the Confederation of British Industry. However, British workers take less time off than they did ten years ago. Manual workers took 9.2 days sick leave in 1999, compared to non manual workers who took 6.5 sick days. British workers had less days off than European workers, the average was 7.8 days a year per employee down from 8.5 days the previous year.

Cash boost for claims handler
Ipswich-based claims handler Town and Country reports a 70% rise in turnover for the financial year ending March 31. The company has handled more than 80,000 claims and staff has increased by 60 to 125. Town and County, headed by chief executive Theodore Agnew, plans to launch a third party claims handling and uninsured loss recover in September. However final details are still yet to worked out on the launch.

Highway Code shocker
Motorists are unable to answer simple Highway Code questions, finds Longford Insurance Schemes. Research showed 73% of people surveyed were unaware that a two second gap is the minimum safe driving distance between cars, and less than a third knew 96 metres was the shortest stopping distance at 70 miles an hour. More than half, 53%, did not know skidding was caused by the driver. But 85% were aware brakes should be tested after driving through a flood.

Take a chance on Alterer
Law firm Clifford Chance this week unveiled three new online services to complement its existing online advice system NextLaw. The first new service is Alerter, an tailored email service to warn companies of regulatory changes. Second is a cross border financing guide. Third is Sanctions, which tells users if their actions are likely to breach UK, US, or EU sanctions.


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