Insurance
FeedBeazley's profits hint at strong Lloyd's
Chris Wheal
Feb 9th 2010
Filed under: Company, Insurance
Lloyd's insurer Beazley has reported pre-tax profit up 15% to more than £100m. It claimed underlying profit was up 259% to £147m on a 27% rise in gross written premiums to more than £1bn. The recently redomiciled to Dublin firm said average rate increase for the year were 3% compared with a 6% fall in prices last year. Beazley is the first Lloyd's insurer to report in what is expected to be boom year for the 300-year old insurance market.
Zurich leads on selection and pricing
Chris Wheal
Feb 4th 2010
Filed under: Company, Markets, Insurance
Insurance giant Zurich reported lower general insurance profits down from $3,535m to $3,463m on a fall in premiums from £37,151m to $34,157m. Bad news you might think, but you'd be wrong.Zurich has been more selective in the risks it takes on and set more accurate premiums for those risks. Its combined ratio - the percentage of premiums it pays in claims and costs fell from 98.1% to 96.8%. That deserves a cheer.
AIG's FP staff to get $100m bonuses
Chris Wheal
Feb 4th 2010
Filed under: Financial Crisis, Insurance
US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner (pictured) has slated bonus payments at AIG as "an outrageous failure of policy" and used the bonus scandal to help secure the Obama administration's proposed tax on banks.This is all bluff and bravado. But the real issue is the US habit of paying bonuses as part of contracts and not relating them to performance. It is a con. It is smoke and mirrors and must be stopped.
Safeway bosses sued for insurance
Chris Wheal
Feb 2nd 2010
Filed under: Insurance, Retail
Supermarket Safeway has taken High Court action against former chairman, David Webster and 10 other staff to recoup a price-fixing fine of up to £16.4m, the FT reports.Basically this is the new owner Morrisons suing Safeway's own director's & officers' (D&O) insurance. It feels like a bit of a scam, but so often the only way to make a claim is to sue.
Drivers cut public transport subsidy
Chris Wheal
Feb 1st 2010
Filed under: Insurance, Public Services
A Kwik-Fit insurance survey has found 79% of drivers would not give up their cars even if public transport in their area were improved.That's probably just as well because Chris Cheek, MD of transport consultancy TAS, reckons it takes a 13% increase in the £4.5bn taxpayer subsidy of public transport to get just 1% of traffic off the roads.
Invesco secures Omega board vote
Chris Wheal
Feb 1st 2010
Filed under: Investing, Markets, Insurance
Invesco Perpetual fund manager Neil Woodford appears to have won his shareholder revolt with Bermuda-based Lloyd's of London insurer Omega. The firm has caved in and is calling a special general meeting (SGM) to vote on proposed board changes.Woodford's preferred list of candidates will now face a ballot and several of the current board will quit if Woodford's team win. It has been like a City soap opera.
90% no claims car policy is bad news
Chris Wheal
Feb 1st 2010
Filed under: Insurance
French insurer AXA has launched a UK direct car insurance product offering drivers up to 90% no claims discount (NCD), at a time when many drivers are seeing their premiums rise rapidly.Great news for consumers - just another silly, price-cutting move for the insurance sector, which has not made a profit in motor insurance for more than a decade.
11,000 cars cloned in new DVLA scam
Adrian Holliday
Feb 1st 2010
Filed under: Debt, Guides And Tools, Personal Finance, Insurance, Credit Reports
In the market for a second-hand car? Be careful. I it could have a fake log book – and you could end up driving off in a write-off or clone. A BBC investigation has revealed that vehicles worth £13m have so far been stolen thanks to a DVLA cock-up. Thousands of blank DVLA log books – known as the V5 – were nicked back in 2006 and have yet to be recovered.
Kidnap couple highlight insurance need
Chris Wheal
Jan 31st 2010
Filed under: Insurance
Tunbridge Wells couple Paul and Rachel Chandler, kidnapped by Somali pirates on 23 October, have said they are in urgent need of help, the BBC reports.Specialist insurance broker, Strategic Broking, last week reported a leap in demand for kidnap cover for its clients' employees travelling on business to high-risk countries. The trouble is, the Chandlers were not the sort of people who get insured.
Crash for cash drivers to pay £300,000
Chris Wheal
Jan 30th 2010
Filed under: Insurance
Judge, Mr Justice Holman, has awarded seven UK motor insurers, represented by law firm Keoghs, £300,000 in damages from 57 members of a Manchester "crash for cash" fraud ring.Insurers got back the money they had paid to the fraudsters who stopped cars suddenly on roundabouts causing innocent drivers to rear-end them, plus £92,000 in exemplary damages. It is time the police arrested these villains.
UK music lovers get the download blues
David Burrows
Jan 29th 2010
Filed under: Personal Finance, Insurance
Millions of us Brits have caught on to the benefits of music downloads but how many of us have our catalogue of music insured? According to research from Sainsbury's Home Insurance, very few of us.
Sainsbury's research reveals that UK music lovers have amassed an estimated £1.3bn worth of digital downloads from online stores such as iTunes and Amazon.
But the supermarket points out to online shoppers that almost three quarters of home insurance policies do not cover digital purchases.
Zurich invests in insurance for the poor
Chris Wheal
Jan 29th 2010
Filed under: Insurance
Insurer Zurich's Z Zurich Foundation is to give the International Labour Organisation (ILO)'s Microinsurance Innovation Facility Sfr3m (£1.8m) to help spread insurance to more low-income people.Zurich is one of the most high profile supporters of microinsurance. It deserves credit for that.
Old sailors sink when using old charts
Chris Wheal
Jan 28th 2010
Filed under: Insurance
Marine mutual insurer the London P&I Club says sailors using out-of-date onboard charts and other nautical publications are causing millions of pounds a year of shipping accidents.They hit ship wrecks and hook their anchors on sea bed telecom cables, in the two examples published. Scuppering your ship because out-of-date charts is not very ship shape is it?
Oldies will pay more for insurance
Chris Wheal
Jan 28th 2010
Filed under: Insurance
Junior equalities minister, Michael Foster will exempt insurers from the ban on age discrimination in the Equality Bill. This will allow insurers to up premiums for riskier age groups providing they can show that the risks and likely claims costs justify it.The equality lobby and campaigners for the elderly are outraged. But it makes sense really.
Household insurance rises flood in
Chris Wheal
Jan 28th 2010
Filed under: Insurance
The AA's insurance premium index said the average quoted premium for an annual home buildings insurance policy rose 5.9% over the fourth quarter of 2009, to £199. Contents premium increased by 6.4%, to £113. Combined buildings and contents policies rose 8.0% to £275.It is about time too. According to the AA the cost of buildings cover is still only 24.3% higher than when the index was launched in 1994. And most of that gain has happened over the past 18 months. With the floods we have seen in recent years, rises must be long overdue.
Beazley's profits hint at strong Lloyd's
BA suffers in 2009 but clouds may lift
90% no claims car policy is bad news
