Specialist travel insurer AllClear has warned that many holidaymakers are travelling with inadequate travel insurance. The primary cause for concern revolves around the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which does provide coverage should an individual fall ill overseas. However, the unfortunate holidaymaker may still be lumbered with paying for expensive drugs, contributing towards treatment and [...]
The National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society (NFU Mutual) has selected Guidewire BillingCenter as its new billing system. According to the agricultural insurer, the move should streamline its premium billing and collection processes. Guidewire provides a web-based single-system solution that can offer real-time visibility into its billing transactions and operations. It should therefore reduce costs [...]
Property/casualty insurance and reinsurance specialist Catlin Group Limited has announced the appointment of Patrick Wills as deputy chief investment officer. He leaves behind Montier Partners LLP to join Catlin, and has also occupied a range of senior positions with a number of banks including Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Bear Stearns International and BNP Paribas. Over 20 [...]
A High Court ruling has established liability for the Buncefield oil fire, which occurred in Hemel Hempstead in December of 2005, when a vapour cloud emanating from a major petrol spillage ignited. The explosion was reported to be the largest ever in peacetime Europe. Forty-three people were injured and claims, including damage to property, amounted [...]
Lloyd’s of London has signed a contract with IBM for the IT services provider to trial the Lloyd’s Exchange Messaging Service. The new facility enables the electronic distribution of data between London insurance market insurers and brokers, replacing traditional paper-based methods of circulation. It is seen as a major step forward in modernising the London [...]
European insurer and reinsurer Glacier Group has announced its consolidated US GAAP financial results for 2008. Total gross written premiums surged upwards by more than a fifth to hit $569.3m compared to $465.7m in 2007. Net income, however, slumped by over $40m to just $26.2m, and net return on equity fell by 13% to 5.6%. [...]
Starting on the 1st of April business visitors bound for the Channel Islands will be required to have adequate travel insurance. The move has been made at the behest of the Department of Health in anticipation of an alteration to the way UK visitors to the Channel Islands receive healthcare. At the end of March [...]
Price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com has added three new insurers to its home and motor insurance panels. Churchill, Privilege and Virgin Money have signed up to join both panels. This brings the total number of motor insurers compared at Moneysupermarket.com to 97, whilst the total number of home insurers is now 50. “We are delighted to [...]
Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA) has set its sights high with the goal of making Qatar a regional hub for insurance and reinsurance activity. The group’s director-general, Stuart Pearce, said the country must develop strategic initiatives from locally-based assets if the goal is to be achieved. “Following the 500 meetings that QFCA official had held [...]
UK-based insurance firm Willis is offering its staff unpaid leave as part of a cost-cutting exercise. The global insurance broker is seeking to cut costs amidst the worldwide economic downturn. It is also understood that chief executive Joe Plumeri has offered staff a cash incentive in exchange for reducing their working hours.
Prudential has announced that the group’s pre-tax profit increased by 17% in 2008, to £3 billion. The result includes an 8% increase in new business profit, while the company’s margin rose 1%, to 43%. Chief executive, Mark Tucker, described the results as “a very strong absolute and relative performance in quite exceptional circumstances”, adding that [...]
Independent insurance intermediary Towergate Partnership has advised individuals and firms to be on their guard when the clocks go forward on Saturday 28 March. The advent of British Summer Time (BST) can sometimes herald a spike in the number of burglaries committed. Lighter evenings can also encourage thieves to go after goods left in the [...]
American International Group (AIG) is being penalised by the US Treasury for its insistence that it is contractually obliged to pay huge bonuses to staff, some of whom played a part in the spectacular demise of the insurance company. The US Treasury says it will be deducting $165 million from AIG’s latest rescue package in [...]
RBS insurance subsidiary, NIG, has been appointed to a panel of insurers that is launching new commercial property owners’ and let property owners’ policies, through PowerPlace. Towergate subsidiary, PowerPlace, is currently used by over 160 brokers operating off the Open GI platform. NIG will take its place on the panel alongside Zurich, Groupama, Fortis, MMA [...]
One in five motorists admitted to driving a car without insurance in a recent survey by moneysupermarket.com. The price comparison site found that 19% of drivers have broken the law by getting behind the wheel of a vehicle they weren’t insured to take on the road. Nearly a tenth (9%) of motorists have driven their [...]
Friends Provident has announced a net loss of £541 million for 2008, compared with a loss of £108 million a year ago. The life and pensions provider also reported that losses on investments stood at £6.6 billion last year, up from £2.6 billion in 2007. In presenting the results, chief executive Trevor Matthews called 2008 [...]
Home insurance renewal forms are the most confusing documents received through the post, according to a poll of UK households. Research commissioned by Gocompare.com found that 24% of Brits simple file their home insurance documents and allow the policy to renew automatically because they find the renewal documents too confusing. Gocompare warns that because of [...]
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has reported that it is dealing with over 800 complaints about payment protection insurance (PPI) each week. The widespread mis-selling of the insurance, which is intended to cover loan repayments should a borrower become too ill to work or face redundancy, has already led the Financial Services Authority to ban [...]
