Moneysupermarket posts better-than-expected results due to surging demand for bank comparison services July 21, 2022 Price comparison website Moneysupermarket today said its first half performance was “ahead of expectations” after 19 per cent higher revenues saw its pre tax profits grow 20 per cent compared to last year. The website said its financial performance was boosted by returning demand from travel insurance comparison services and “exceptional” trading in its banking [...]
LV= faces pressure to say whether outgoing chief Mark Hartigan will take payout on exiting firm July 19, 2022 Critics have hit out at mutual insurer LV= over its refusal to say whether it will give outgoing chief executive Mark Hartigan a payout, following his exit from the firm. LV= has so far refused to say whether Hartigan will receive a payout or how much he might take, after the insurer on Monday announced [...]
Insurers could speed up rewriting policies to reduce exposure to claims following crypto crash July 15, 2022 The drastic crash in the crypto market could lead to insurers speed up rewriting policies to reduce exposure to claims. Following the crypto rout, which has seen prices of major cryptocurrencies plummeting and wiped out billions of dollars from the market, insurers will likely review or amend policy wordings to avoid indirectly insuring losses from [...]
Solvency II reforms will not be a ‘free lunch’ for insurance sector, Bank of England says July 8, 2022 The Bank of England (BoE) has said its post-Brexit shakeup of the rules that govern the UK’s insurance industry will not be a “free lunch” for the sector, that puts policyholders at risk. In a speech on Friday, Sam Woods, chief executive of the BoE’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said policyholders must be protected as [...]
Chinese firm that owns Lloyd’s building brings in architects to draw up plans if insurer leaves June 23, 2022 The Chinese insurance giant that owns Lloyd’s of London’s City headquarters has brought architects into the Grade I listed building to come up with ideas for what to do with it if Lloyds decides to leave. China’s biggest insurer Ping An – which bought the Lloyd’s building for £260m in 2013 – has brought in [...]
UK watchdog fines London insurer JLT Speciality Ltd £7.9m for involvement in bribery scandal June 22, 2022 The UK’s financial watchdog has fined London insurance broker JLT Specialty Ltd (JLTSL) £7.9m over its involvement in a multi-million-dollar bribery scandal. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) hit the London broker with a £7.9m fine for failing to prevent financial crime, after an “introducer” working for the firm in Panama paid $3m in bribes to [...]
Insurers calls on government to expand pensions ‘auto-enrolment’ scheme June 21, 2022 The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has called on the government to to expand its pensions “auto-enrolment” scheme, following a review of the policy’s successes since it came into force a decade ago. The ABI said the government should set out plans to expand its auto-enrolment policy, which requires employers to automatically enroll all staff [...]
Insurance giant Axa calls for clarity on self-driving cars June 16, 2022 French insurer Axa has called on the government to offer greater clarity around autonomous vehicles to support the rollout of self-driving cars. The French insurance firm called on the government to put in place laws that enable the deployment of self-driving vehicles, as it said lawmakers should work with the insurance sector to “pave the [...]
UK small businesses being priced out of cyber insurance by high premiums and cost-of-living crunch June 16, 2022 The UK’s small businesses are increasingly being priced out of cyber insurance policies, due to sky-high premiums and the cost-of-living crunch. Almost a third (29 per cent) of companies with fewer than 250 staff cancelled their cyber insurance policies last year, as part of efforts to cut costs, research from GlobalData shows. A further 17.3 [...]
Solvency II shakeup will boost UK insurers’ competitivity, Bank of England exec says June 15, 2022 A high-ranking exec from the Bank of England’s (BoE’s) financial services watchdog has said the government’s plans to overhaul Solvency II will boost the insurance sector competitivity. Charlotte Gerken, executive director of insurance at the BoE’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), said the government’s plans for reforms of Solvency II will increase the UK insurance sector’s [...]