LV=’s Broker division has announced that it is to expand, opening a new office in Birmingham. The office will manage relationships with brokers in the East and West Midlands, and will be situated at Baskerville House in the city centre. Mark Hands assumes the role of branch manager, joining the firm from NIG where he [...]
Shareholders in troubled Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis plan to take legal action against the Dutch state over its nationalisation of the bank in the Netherlands. Mischaël Modrikamen, the lawyer representing 2,300 Fortis shareholders, said a claim for damages against the Dutch government would be filed next week. Modrikamen last month won an appeal in Belgium’s high [...]
New York should aim to compete with Bermuda as a centre for insurance, the city’s Insurance Superintendent has claimed. Eric Dinallo said he will continue to push for the revival of the defunct New York Insurance Exchange. New York could compete for much of the business that goes to Bermuda, he said. Operating from New [...]
Government schemes announced earlier this week to ease lending to small and medium-sized businesses could be followed by intervention over credit insurance. Trade credit insurance protects companies if customers fail to pay or enter administration and the recession has prompted a surge in claims. Providers are becoming nervous but without trade credit insurance, the supply [...]
Equitable Life policyholders who qualify as having been “disproportionately affected” by the near collapse of the insurer, will receive compensation. Treasury minister, Yvette Cooper, has apologised for the failures that brought the UK’s oldest mutual insurance company close to collapse in 2000, when it could not deliver the returns it had promised to policyholders. Over [...]
Sterling Administration Services (SAS), a subsidiary of Sterling Insurance Group, has been chosen by CUNA Mutual Group to be the primary administrative provider of CUNA’s Life Insurance and payment protection policies sold in the UK and Ireland. Payment protection claims and premiums within the mortgage, personal loan, savings and funeral plan portfolio are to be [...]
Price comparison website Confused.com has added five new partners to its list of home, motor and travel insurance providers. ASDA, Hastings Direct and InsurePink are joining Confused.com’s home insurance panel of over 60 providers – the largest number on any comparison site. ASDA and Hastings Direct are both exclusive to Confused.com. Supermarket insurer ASDA offers [...]
Solera Holdings has completed its £78.3 million acquisition of UK-based HPI Limited. The deal included £67 million paid in cash, and £11.3 million paid in a subordinated note. The subordinated note carries an 8% annual interest rate, and is payable in full on 31st December 2011. An additional £4.8 million will be paid to HPI’s [...]
Car insurance premiums continued to rise over the fourth quarter of 2008, according to data released this week by the AA. The cost of car insurance increased by an average of 1% per month over the three month period. Since October, the average premium for annual comprehensive cover has risen 2.9% to a record £741.66. [...]
Global insurance provider Aon Corporation has announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share on outstanding common stock. This is the same dividend as last year. The dividend will be paid on 16th February 2009 to shareholders of record on 2nd February 2009.
Hampden Agencies Ltd (HAL), an adviser to Lloyd’s of London, has reported that an already emerging trend for Lloyd’s insurers to raise capital from private investors, also known as “Names”, is expected to increase. In recent years fundraising has focused on the debt and equity markets but with these markets frozen by the credit crisis, [...]
QuestGates has announced the launch of Advantage, a new approach to major household losses. One of Advantage’s main differences with the more traditional way of dealing with such losses is that it utilises an experienced adjusting and surveying team (i.e. it treats the losses as if they were commercial complex and major losses). QuestGates does [...]
John Murphy has joined Ironshore Inc. as the firm’s new Worldwide Head of Property. The firm is largely focused on property catastrophe and non-catastrophe business from Bermuda, and aims to expand to the US and UK during the course of this year. In his new post Murphy is tasked with ensuring a consistent global strategy [...]
WR Berkley Corporation has announced two senior appointments at two of its member companies. Vela Insurance Services, Inc has a new president in the form of David A. Jordan, who succeeds Richard P. Shemitis. Shemitis moves on to assume the role of executive VP and chief underwriting officer of Nautilus Insurance Group, LLC. Both moves [...]
Aon Global UK has announced the appointment of Fiona Davies as director responsible for managing relationships with multinationals and encouraging business growth. Davies formerly worked as a global client advocate for Willis in London prior to joining Aon, and brings with her more than two decades of experience in the industry. In her new post [...]
UK law firm Morgan Cole has assisted its client, US based Solera Holdings, Inc., in its acquisition of HPI Limited for $117.4m/£78.3m. A leading UK vehicle validation services firm, HPI Limited also operates the aptly named “HPI check”, and was earlier part of the Aviva Group and owned by RAC. The solicitors of Morgan Cole [...]
Shropshire-based insurance broker Longmynd Insurance has joined agricultural broking group FarmWeb. The move gives FarmWeb its first access to the Northern Irish market through Longmynd’s network of brokers. Founded in 1989 by proprietor Robert Oakley, Longmynd has established a large farm account in Northern Ireland through an extensive panel of brokers. It also serves clients [...]
Kwik-Fit Financial Services (KFFS) yesterday appointed Brendan Devine as new managing director. He succeeds Martin Oliver, who left Kwik-Fit last year to join Barbon Insurance as chief executive. Devine’s experience in the UK and Irish financial services industry spans 20 years, the last 10 of which were spent in a variety of senior roles at [...]
France-based BNP Paribas said this week it remains determined to acquire some assets of struggling Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis, despite attempts by Fortis shareholders to put a legal block on the transaction. The acquisition was halted in December when a court of appeal in Brussels ruled a 65-day suspension on the sale of Fortis assets to [...]
Lloyd’s of London is appointing IBM as the sole service provider for Lloyd’s Exchange pilot, a new central trading hub, although contracts have yet to be signed. The system will allow market participants to transfer risk information to one another using electronic messaging standards. It will therefore eliminate the need for multiple connections with other [...]
