XL launches environmental global programme
by Gill Montia
Story link: XL launches environmental global programme
XL Group has extended its global programme offering with the launch of XL WorldPass Environmental. The new environmental liability offering provides coverage for a broad range of industrial and commercial operators and according to the insurer, combines its world class technical underwriting expertise with its global programme capabilities. Commenting on the launch, the firm’s head [...]
Lockton to enter UK employee benefits market
by Gill Montia
Story link: Lockton to enter UK employee benefits market
Lockton is to enter the UK employee benefits market with a view to building a full-service capability by the beginning of next year. The new enterprise will be headed by Mike Tyler who will join the broker on 1st October having previously held the post of managing director the UK division of global benefits business, [...]
AXA reports rise in business crime
by Richard Kilner
Story link: AXA reports rise in business crime
AXA’s latest Business Crime Index has reported that the riots of last August contributed to a 3% rise in crime against businesses. However, there has been a general rise for the last few years in anti-business crime, with the previous year also seeing a 3% increase. As might be expected, there is a varying degree [...]
AXA renews GAB Robins contract
by Gill Montia
Story link: AXA renews GAB Robins contract
AXA has confirmed the renewal of its commercial property loss adjusting contract with GAB Robins. The deal, which covers claims up to £250,000 in value, will run for three years. The insurer has also revealed that it has a number of strategic claims projects underway aimed at enhancing delivery for its commercial property brokers and [...]
Aviva: lack of protection impacts UK business
by Gill Montia
Story link: Aviva: lack of protection impacts UK business
UK businesses are being hindered by a lack of effective sickness absence management, according to a new report from Aviva. The study highlights just what it means to have an absent employee, with 40% of employers questioned saying someone else has to pick up their work; 27% admitting that productivity falls, 22% believing that absences [...]
Risks mount for board directors
by Gill Montia
Story link: Risks mount for board directors
Increased regulatory, shareholder and media scrutiny combined with volatility in the global economy means that serving on the board of a company has never been so risky. So says Willis in its latest boardroom guide to executive risk, while explaining that directors of large firms are facing a backdrop of “almost unparalleled financial instability, corporate [...]
APC launches financial intermediary PI cover
by Gill Montia
Story link: APC launches financial intermediary PI cover
APC entered the Professional Indemnity (PI) market by launching a product aimed at mortgage and finance intermediaries. The commercial insurer says the move has been prompted by “huge” client demand and is promising many more PI products for its network of brokers. The mortgage and finance intermediaries’ offering has been developed in response to market [...]
Navigators launches emerging risks D&O policy
by Gill Montia
Story link: Navigators launches emerging risks D&O policy
Lloyd’s based insurance group, Navigators, has launched a new directors and officers (D&O) product aimed at addressing emerging global risks. The policy provides dedicated excess coverage for individual directors and officers for specific non-indemnifiable claims, including when the company they work for is insolvent. It offers D&O coverage for civil fines and penalties, where insurable [...]
Innovative SMEs fail to check insurance
by Gill Montia
Story link: Innovative SMEs fail to check insurance
Aviva’s latest SME Pulse survey shows that small business owners are increasingly diversifying and innovating as they look to capitalise on summer events. The numbers of SMEs putting on sales and discounts or diversifying into new areas have increased in the last six months but according to Aviva, many are putting themselves at risk by [...]
JLT lifts the lid on solicitors’ PI
by Gill Montia
Story link: JLT lifts the lid on solicitors’ PI
JLT Specialty (JLT) has launched a buyers’ guide to solicitors’ professional indemnity (PI) insurance. The five-step guide covers risk assessment criteria, the insurance supply chain and the impact of business planning on premiums. Readers are also invited to explore the purchasing process within the context of broader market conditions. JLT Specialty partner, Mike Perry, comments: [...]
FSA fines former commercial broker £472,000
by Gill Montia
Story link: FSA fines former commercial broker £472,000
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned and fined a former commercial insurance broker who used clients’ insurance premiums to fund his business. Stephen Goodwin, a former partner of Goodwin Best based in Bury, Lancashire, has been fined £471,846 for his failings and has been prohibited from working in regulated financial services. Between 2008 and [...]
CMI highlights impact of recession on employee health
by Gill Montia
Story link: CMI highlights impact of recession on employee health
New research from the Chartered Management Institute paints a bleak picture of the impact of the recession on employee health in UK workplaces. Compared with 2007, managers today are: working longer hours due to larger workloads; increasingly suffering from ill health including stress and depression; are more likely to come to work despite being sick. [...]
Fall in Somali pirate attacks
by Gill Montia
Story link: Fall in Somali pirate attacks
Pirate attacks fell sharply in the first half of 2012, led by a drop in Somali piracy, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reports. All in all, 177 incidents were made known to the IMB’s piracy centre compared to 266 for the corresponding period of 2011. Twenty vessels were hijacked worldwide and 334 crew members taken [...]
Willis secures Guernsey commercial licence
by Gill Montia
Story link: Willis secures Guernsey commercial licence
Willis Group has been issued with a full commercial lines licence to conduct insurance intermediary services in Guernsey. The firm now claims to be the only London-based insurance broker with both a Guernsey licence and a full-time local representative based in the Channel Islands and dedicated to providing financial institution, professional indemnity and directors’ and [...]
UK businesses in front line of cyber threat
by Gill Montia
Story link: UK businesses in front line of cyber threat
Delivering the Lord Mayor’s Annual Defence and Security Lecture yesterday, the UK’s Director General of the Security Service, Jonathan Evans, warned that the front line in cyber security is as much in business as it is in government. Currently, Britain’s National Security Strategy ranks cyber security alongside terrorism as one of the four key security [...]
XL expands political risk and trade credit capability
by Gill Montia
Story link: XL expands political risk and trade credit capability
XL Group has announced that its Political Risk and Trade Credit (PRTC) business has received approval from Lloyd’s to write risks using the Lloyd’s platform, via XL’s Lloyd’s Syndicate 1209. The commercial insurer has also announced the expansion of its PRTC team with the addition of Mark Houghton as vice president and senior underwriter at [...]
Germany must “open up” to global insurance market
by Gill Montia
Story link: Germany must “open up” to global insurance market
The eurozone crisis and the export-led boom in German industry are making Germany’s insurance buyers look to markets outside their own borders, according to Jan Blumenthal, Lloyd’s general representative for the country. Mr Blumenthal believes the euro’s difficulties have highlighted issues with insurer solvency and the long-term sustainability of the German insurance market because “it [...]
MetLife adds bereavement service to group life protection
by Gill Montia
Story link: MetLife adds bereavement service to group life protection
MetLife is expanding its group life protection product to include a bereavement and probate service. The new free-of-charge offering will support employees and their families affected by loss via a 24-hour telephone helpline that provides legal and financial guidance including help with the complicated issues of probate, grants of representation and family disputes following bereavement. [...]
Call for insurer innovation in CMT sector
by Gill Montia
Story link: Call for insurer innovation in CMT sector
“Resistance to change” is seen as the biggest weakness for insurers (44%) and brokers (39%), according to a poll undertaken by JLT Specialty at the recent Global Communications, Technology & Media (CTM) Forum in Salzburg. The survey also found that a majority of attendees “strongly agreed” with the following statements: 1. Insurers don’t understand patent [...]
ABI calls for overhaul of Riot Damages Act
by Gill Montia
Story link: ABI calls for overhaul of Riot Damages Act
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is calling for an overhaul in the Riot (Damages) Act 1886, which allows compensation to be paid by police authorities to victims who suffer loss or damage following a riot. According to the ABI, the intention of the 126 year-old legislation remains relevant but current arrangements have led to [...]
