Industry's top lawyers listed
Industry's top lawyers listed
Law firm Barlow Lyde & Gilbert was celebrating this week after 17 of its lawyers were named in a prestigious guide to the world's best insurance and reinsurance lawyers. Euromoney's guide is the result of 2500 questionnaires. Barlow Lyde & Gilbert had the most nominations of any law firm.
Jaguar purrs at Audatex
Jaguar Cars has recommended Audatex computerised estimating systems to its approved bodyshop network, Jaguar Body and Paint Centres of Excellence. Other Audatex systems include Audaworkstation, a package that allows electronic communication between parties involved in the repair process.
Loss adjuster gains award
Loss adjuster Miller Pycraft has won the 'Achievement Through Innovation' award at the Quality in Construction awards, for its new repair service, Repairline. The service's pre-charged credit card from Natwest enables claimants to buy materials of their choice from any store in the UK.
III deal for Accidentcare
Crisis management company Accidentcare Group this week sealed a joint venture with online financial services portal, interactive investor international (III). Under the deal, Accidentcare will provide a range of customer services, initially to motor insurance customers and later to household policyholders. The deal opens up a huge potential market for Accidentcare. III has more than 933,000 registered account holders, while more than 1.6 million unique users visited the site in February alone.
HSBC Select's car boost
HSBC Select (UK) has clinched a five-year contract to handle the administration of Gladiator, the non-standard car division of direct motor writer Admiral. The deal will see the transfer of some 35,000 policies to HSBC Select, which will also employ a further 100 staff in its call centre. All Gladiator staff will be offered alternative positions within Admiral.
Drive to gain Aon training
Aon Risk Services has chosen driver training company Drive & Survive as its preferred supplier of driver training. Aon handles insurance for around one million drivers in the UK, through fleet schemes with companies. Drive & Survive will be drafted in where Aon believes a company is making too many claims.
Claims drag out for St Paul
US insurer St Paul said it has received four separate notices warning of possible claims from cigarette manufacturer Liggett. A spokesman for the insurer said the policies were issued "many years ago" and three of the four claims relate to businesses now owned by other insurers. They include a subsidiary now owned by All State and another subsidiary since bought by Ace. The one case in which St Paul has an interest relates to cover issued by a subsidiary for advertising liability, but it said this makes no allowance for bodily injury claims. The spokesman said St Paul was protected by extensive exclusions in its policies. The notices do not state the size of any potential claim. This week, a Florida jury awarded three smokers £8m compensation against the cigarette industry.
Big bill passes under Big Ben
The 200-page plus Financial Services and Markets Bill has completed its committee stage in the House of Lords. Government and opposition have so far proposed more than 1,500 amendments to the bill, which seeks to merge the nine existing financial regulators, (barring general insurance) into a single “super” watchdog. The bill is set to resume its passage through the Lords on April 13, with its report stage.
RSA is greenest insurer of all
Royal & SunAlliance achieved the highest placing of any UK insurer in the 1999 Business in the Environment survey. The annual survey measures corporate environmental engagement. RSA was placed 19th in the FTSE 100 rankings.
Short-term for sea, sun, sand
A new NOP study, commissioned by Direct Line, has found that although 40% of people are taking more holidays than they were five years ago, 30% of holidaymakers have not considered buying annual travel policies, which tend to work out cheaper.
