Home insurance claims relating to water damage have increased significantly over the past few weeks, according to Sainsbury’s insurance arm. Sainsbury’s Home Insurance estimates a total of 13,000 water damage claims under the category ‘forcible/violent bursting’ this winter across the UK. Total cost to insurers is estimated at £27.56 million. Neil Laird, manager of Sainsbury’s [...]
Admiral – whose brands include elephant.co.uk and confused.com – has been tipped as a good buy by Mail on Sunday website This is Money. The website said Admiral – unlike many insurance firms – prices properly to ensure that the majority of its risk is passed on to the reinsurance market. Because of this, it [...]
LV= has added its home insurance products to price comparison website Gocompare.com. LV=’s eCommerce director Paul Wishman said: “We are very pleased to add our home insurance policies to Gocompare.com. “We added car insurance in May last year and we have seen some really great sales results.” Joining the Gocompare.com is part of LV=’s ambitious [...]
THB Group plc, the specialist broking and risk management business, has reported a rise in turnover to £52 million for the period 1 May 2007 to 31 October 2008. The increase takes into account the group’s acquisition in 2008 of the Lloyd’s broking business of PWS International Ltd, plus certain overseas interests of the PWS [...]
AIG Global Real Estate (GRE) yesterday announced plans to sell its fund management business. GRE, the real estate investment management unit owned by troubled US-insurer AIG, operates 15 funds with more than $12.4 billion in assets as at 30th September 2008. Headquartered in New York, the business has regional operations in Europe, Japan, Latin America [...]
Specialist executive search consultancy GRS has announced a raft of senior appointments in the insurance and pensions recruitment sector. Over the last 3 months GRS Group has been in talks with search firm Mansion House’s pension and insurance recruiters which has yielded a team including Nick Purdue, Gerard Bland, Simon Dodds, Simon Clark and Mena [...]
Lorega, the loss recovery insurance specialist, has secured an agreement with Jelf Insurance Brokers under which it will provide its claims assistance service to Jelf’s commercial customer base. The service, which has already undergone a successful pilot, involves Lorega providing a chartered loss adjuster to help Jelf’s commercial clients prepare and manage claims above £5,000. [...]
Duck Creek Technologies, Inc. (DCTI), the Missouri-based firm that provides software and services to the insurance sector, has announced plans to acquire Duck Creek Technologies Europe (DCTE). The latter is a London-based affiliate of DCTI and the move involves acquiring the voting shares of all outside investors in DCTE, over the next two years. According [...]
The number of employees stealing confidential information from former workplaces has risen dramatically, a City law firm has revealed. Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC) said the last two years have seen a sevenfold leap in the number of claims brought by businesses against former employees for using confidential information. Claims launched in the Chancery Division of [...]
Independent insurance broker Giles Insurance Brokers has been appointed by the National Federation of Builders (NFB) to serve as the federation’s sole insurance advisor. Beating off stiff competition from rivals, Giles will now offer the NFB’s 1,800 members, located across England and Wales, with insurance services tailored to their particular needs. The appointment of a [...]
Lloyd’s insurer Chaucer Holdings has confirmed reports that it is exploring options to raise capital. A statement from Chaucer read: “The company confirms that it is currently exploring its options for raising capital in light of the improving underwriting outlook for the insurance sector and the company’s capital requirements.” The comments were made following a [...]
Japan-based insurance firms Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, Aioi Insurance Co. and Nissay Dowa General Insurance have announced plans to merge. The merger – to be completed by April 2010 – will result in the biggest casualty insurance firm in Japan, with annual revenues of around 2.7 trillion yen ($30 billion, £22 billion). The three companies [...]
Accident claim handler Helphire saw its shares plummet 42% following a profit warning. The group released its profit projections for the first half, which were significantly lower than a year ago due to a decline in accident frequency and hire durations. However, the company said it is confident of improved performance in the seasonally strong [...]
Lloyd’s insurer, Hiscox, has reported good rate increases in key areas during 2008. The firm, which specialises in complex personal and commercial risks, including art and kidnap insurance, has reported that rates on US reinsurance business rose on average by between 15% and 25% during the year. Meanwhile, regional business saw premiums increase by a [...]
Fortis Banque, the Belgian-government controlled banking arm of Fortis, last week reported its results for the first nine months of 2008 with a net loss of €14.1 billion. Fourth quarter net losses are anticipated at €4-€5 billion, bringing total losses for 2008 to €19 billion. The bank blamed the losses on the financial crisis, the [...]
Specialist insurer Caravan Guard has announced that it has raised over £1,000 for Heart Research UK, by offering customers an online “paperless” policy option. The caravan and motor-home insurer is making a £1 donation to the charity for every policy purchased through its “quote-and-buy” website, which was launched last summer. Director, Craig Thompson, stresses that [...]
Arista, the commercial lines underwriter set up in 2006, has expanded its team covering Yorkshire and the North East, where the firm says it is catering for a growing number of independent brokers. Sue Speight has been appointed broker development manager for the region where she will be providing the company’s first dedicated contact for [...]
Investors in Norwich Union’s (NU) unit-linked life and pensions’ property fund may not be able to redeem their cash for up to six months. The insurer is limiting withdrawals, although savers whose policies are due to mature during the period and those who receive regular payments from the fund are not affected, along with anyone [...]
Allianz is not interested in acquisitions and has no need for additional capital, according to board member Clement Booth. The Germany-based insurer is one of the ‘best capitalised’ in Europe, Booth told news agency Reuters. “We have no need to raise extra capital,” Booth said. Booth – who is responsible for Allianz operations in the [...]
Royal London’s two merged international insurance businesses have been rebranded and launched as Royal London 360°. Commenting on the rebrand, a spokesperson said: “It’s our way of saying we are a global business.” The merged and renamed companies, Scottish Life International and Scottish Provident International, were acquired by Royal London Group in June 2008. The [...]
