Former HBOS head of claims offers funding to legal expenses specialist
Former head of claims at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) General Insurance, Jim Pittman, has joined legal expenses finance specialist Devonshire Capital as chief executive.
Devonshire Capital currently funds the premiums for Gibraltar-based Redsands Insurance, which specialises in legal expenses cover. Redsands is solely owned by Capricorn Associations.
Pittman would not comment on the amount of capacity Redsands had available, but said: "The business was established with capital of around £3m."
London-based Devonshire Capital offers funding for solicitors and claims management companies dealing in personal injury in England and Wales. The company went live in February and Pittman joined this April.
Pittman said: "It is going well. The market has moved significantly since The Accident Group went down. Demand is strong but the challenge for us is to write the right business, so there is a huge focus on risk analysis."
Redsands provides the insurance for claims management companies and deals solely through broker F&I Solutions. "It deals with one broker because it can only deal in one class of business - legal expenses. But Capricorn's long term aim is to use Redsands in other insurance interests in Europe," said Pittman.
At HBOS Pittman ran the entire household customer service operations. "I joined HBOS in 1999 and left ultimately because I found myself doing the same things, that is property claims management," he said.
Redsands is the first insurance company that Devon-hire has funded, but Pittman hinted that others would be considered too.
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