Latest News – Page 1941
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Backchat
Wisdom of the elders
Backchat was honoured to speak to a stalwart of the insurance industry this week. A man, who in 1937 at the age of 16, got his first job at a small insurance company, before heading off to war.Now, after 70 years in the sector, and still with no plans to ...
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Backchat
Addressing the the issue of letters
Royal & SunAliance (R&SA) appears to be doing all it can to embrace the so-called IT revolution. While some are looking for ways to encourage paperless transactions, R&SA has gone one better by implicitly discouraging the use of letters. A bulletin issued to customer account handlers regarding changes to credit ...
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News
Brit seeks provider deal to expand e-trading
Brit Insurance is seeking to expand its electronic trading system to provide a wider range of products to brokers. Simon Cooter, Brit UK’s distribution director, said the company was talking to electronic trading platform providers, with a deal expected in less than two months.The insurer is looking to increase the ...
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Backchat
From baby buggy to Bentley
The streets could soon be awash with Bentley-driving teenagers, research by Peart Insurance Brokers has warned.Over the past 18 months the average age of a Bentley, Aston Martin or Ferrari owner has fallen by 10 years, from 45 to 35. Underwriting and agency manager Brian Gent says: “Until recently it ...
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News
Cobra targets reinsurance as first half profits flat
Broking group Cobra is to enter the reinsurance sector in a move to expand its London market division. Cobra Holdings chief executive Steve Burrows said the group had invested heavily in its London market operation, employing new teams to develop the reinsurance operation. He said: “We decided now is the ...
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News
Stockwatch
Benfield shares gained 12.5% this week after reports of a failed £700m takeover bid by Goldman Sachs. Analyst Numis said that the latest failure to strike a deal made a buy-out unlikely in the near future, as the most likely candidates had been exhausted. Aon and Marsh are also ...
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News
NU pulls out of Oval deal as Allianz poised for stake
10% shareholding deal to be completed in next few weeks
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Backchat
Smoke alarm at detector factory
Smoke alarms at the BRK factory in Gloucester caught fire, forcing employees to barricade themselves in their offices.The fire destroyed 35,000 smoke detectorsThe Environment Agency has been scanning piles of the burnt-out detectors for radioactivity. Oh the irony.
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News
Tele-mediation for injury claims
InterResolve has launched a telephone mediation scheme for unresolved personal injury (PI) claims, following completion of a pilot with AXA.The pilot, which began in April and involved 50 cases, successfully reduced settlement times from over 18 months to seven weeks. Despite being used across a range of claim values, it ...
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News
Industry ‘doesn’t have a clue’ on cost of fraud
Insurers do not know the true extent of insurance fraud and fraud detection methods are inadequate, experts claimed this week. Mihir Pandya, who led a forth-coming ABI study on insurance fraud, said that although the industry had made some progress in fighting fraud, there were a significant number of cases ...
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News
Airmic slams added commissions
Airmic has objected to national brokers’ plans to introduce additional commissions on fee business across the market.But the association acknowledged that transparency in broker fees was a more important issue, and would not be opposing the charge.In recent weeks Willis and Marsh have said they will begin levying a 2.5% ...
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Online only
FSCS steps in after broker goes into administration
The FSCS is stepping in to help customers of Bracknell broker Your Health Plus Insurance Services who may have lost money after the firm went into administration.It has now declared this firm in default.The FSCS said it may be able to pay compensation to those policyholders who paid premiums to ...
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FeaturesNorth West striding ahead
Insurance Times together with our partners, Groupama and Liberty, held a round table discussion where a panel of experts gave their views on the state of the North West market and the issues it faces
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C-Zone
Testing utmost good faith
One of the fundamental principles of insurance is the principle of utmost good faith. Applying this to an insurance contract raises the question of duty, which does not arise in a sale of goods contract. A buyer of goods normally has the opportunity to inspect them before purchase and, as ...
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News
A lateral jump that shook the industry
Towergate’s move on Open International is a sharp change of strategy. Michael Faulkner reports
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News
JLT’s £20m offer leads bids for First City buy-out
Three in race to take over independent Lloyd’s broker
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News
Roadsure sold to sister company Premium Choice
Up to 30 staff will be affected by the sale of broker Roadsure to sister company Premium Choice. Northampton-based Roadsure will move to Premium Choice’s Birmingham office following the sale this week, which was part of a restructure by parent company Optimas.Roadsure director Neil Beckingham said there would be ...
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News
Private motor rate rises fuel market recovery
The private motor market is continuing to show signs of recovery, with two surveys showing further rate increases. But there were warnings that rates must increase significantly if the market is to make a profit. Deloitte said motor rates increased by an average of 1.4% in July and August. This ...
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News
Novae loses three more underwriters
Insurer Novae has suffered more resignations with the loss of three underwriting staff, including two senior underwriters. Gail Cook, head of regional professional indemnity (PI) in London, who also runs the insurer’s regional solicitors’ PI strategy, has gone.And Dominick Rogers, underwriting manager for Scotland and Northern Ireland has also left ...
