The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) has come out in favour of the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) proposed guidance on the selling of general insurance policies through price comparison sites. Aggregators are not currently subject of any specific FSA rules and BIBA has fully endorsed the new draft guidelines, highlighting its top issues as follows: [...]
Lloyd’s insurer, Marketform, has appointed Paul Guiry as chief financial officer, replacing Roger Doubtfire, who is retiring. Mr Guiry has over 20 years of financial management experience with a number of insurance firms, having most recently spent six years as finance director at AEGIS London. Prior to this, he was senior vice president at ALEA; [...]
New-York headquartered Transatlantic Holdings, Inc (TRH) has confirmed that it has received a takeover bid from National Indemnity Company, part of the Berkshire Hathaway group, at $52.00 per share. The offer is subject to a formal response by close of business today and a break fee of $75 million applies, should the deal not complete [...]
Crawford & Company has acquired the Appian Business Process Management (BPM) Suite, in a move that should radically alter the way the claims management group develops software applications. The Suite was first introduced to Crawford during development efforts for repairNet, the firm’s managed repair service in the UK. By helping information technology and business users [...]
Claims related to damage by water could increase home insurance premiums by up to £40, which is particularly concerning as the cost of claims for water damage have spiked by 44% in just one year. The surprisingly high surge in the cost of claims, published by Allianz, follows an announcement by the Association of British [...]
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) has reported its financial results for the second quarter, which saw it achieve a net income of $1.8bn. This is substantially better than the $2.7bn net loss the firm incurred during the corresponding period last year, and the firm’s Q1 net profits of $269m. The Q2 2010 net loss was [...]
The Navigators Group, Inc. has reported that in the second quarter of 2011 it made a net income of $9.5m, equating to $0.6 per diluted share. This is precisely half the $19m ($1.16 per diluted share) the firm made in the corresponding period last year. However, it is a sharp return to profitability after incurring [...]
Peter Taylor has been appointed as the new lay chairman of the Chartered Insurance Institute’s (CII) Disciplinary Committee. Mr Taylor is currently a consultant at Hogan Lovells International LLP where he was previously a partner from 1993 to 2010. In his new role, he will chair meetings of the Disciplinary Committee and hearings of the [...]
LV= has appointed Iain Clark as managing director of protection. With 24 years’ experience in the protection market, Mr Clark joins from Legal & General where he was IFA protection business sales director. In his new role, he will be responsible for LV=’s entire protection proposition, working alongside Mark Jones, head of protection product. Yesterday, [...]
Swiss Re has reported a group net income of US$960m in the second quarter of 2011, significantly better than the US$812m it made in the corresponding period last year. Quarterly earnings per share rose from $2.37 in Q2 2010 to $2.80 and return on equity increased from 13.4% to 15.6%. It is also over a [...]
Munich Re has reported that in the second quarter of 2011 it recorded a profit of €738m, up from the €709m it made in the corresponding period last year. However, due to a first quarter heavily affected by the extremely high level of catastrophe activity, the firm incurred a consolidated loss of €210m in the [...]
Canopius has appointed two underwriters to its sabotage and terrorism team. In their new roles, Tim Davies and Jennie Beard will report to Simon Low, the re/insurer’s head of political risk & crisis management. Mr Davies has considerable experience in the terrorism market, having previously held senior broking positions and most recently headed up the [...]
RSA has posted pre-tax profit of £376 million for the six months to the end of June, with the figure up 25% on a year earlier. Net written premiums increased to £4.2 billion, up 10% year-on-year, driven partly by the benefit of 2010 deals. The group recorded an underwriting result of £206 million (H1 2010: [...]
RSA group chief executive, Andy Haste, will be stepping down by the end of the year, after more than eight years at the helm. Simon Lee, currently chief executive of the insurer’s international business, has been named as his successor. Mr Lee joined RSA in 2003 and was appointed to its board in 2007. He [...]
XL Group has reported its financial results for the second quarter, including net income of $226m, equating to $0.69 per ordinary share. This is better than the $192m made in the corresponding period last year, and a huge improvement on the firm’s Q1 net loss of $228m. The firm was hit hard by the exceptionally [...]
LV= has reported its interim financial performance results for the first six months of the year, during which gross written premiums increased from £547m last year to £704m in H1 2011. Biannual pre-tax profits were up by approximately 50% from £34m to £52m. Similarly, trading profits increased from £35m to £53m, and the insurer continues [...]
Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (MMC) has reported its financial results for the second quarter of the year. Quarterly consolidated revenue was $2.9bn, up 12% from the corresponding period last year ($2.6bn) and flat with the first quarter of 2011. Net income in Q2 was up 19% from $236m to $282m, but declined from the [...]
Groupama is selling is UK healthcare business to competitor, Simplyhealth, which is keen to grow a more diverse range of products and services. Simplyhealth chief executive officer, Des Benjamin, explains: “By acquiring Groupama Healthcare, an award winning business, we have the opportunity to build greater presence in the small to medium business sector and grow [...]
Giles is acquiring Manchester-based broker, CBG, for £5.1 million in cash. CBG has a predominantly corporate and commercial client base handled by 120 employees across offices in Manchester, Blackpool and London. The move should therefore provide Giles with an opportunity to extend its geographic footprint in England’s North West, while the CBG business benefits from [...]
