Car insurers hit by probe into rate rises September 8, 2011 SOARING car insurance costs are at the centre of a new investigation by the UK’s competition watchdog, to assess whether insurance firms are raising premiums unnecessarily. The Office of Fair Trading yesterday said it was so concerned at signs that premiums rose up to 40 per cent in the year to March that it launched [...]
OFT to probe soaring car insurance costs September 8, 2011 Steep increases in the cost of car insurance have prompted the competition watchdog to launch a call for evidence to understand the pressures on the market. The Office of Fair Trading is reacting to about 40 per cent increases in the cost of premiums for the compulsory insurance for all motorists, and has asked insurance [...]
Insurers hit out at no win no fee claims September 5, 2011 AMBULANCE-CHASING lawyers came under fire from major UK retailers and insurers demanding reform of the booming market for personal injury claims yesterday. Businesses led by the Association of British Insurers are fighting back against a surge in “no win no fee” legal actions behind a 72 per cent jump in the number of bodily injury [...]
Retailers and insurers campaign for no-win-no-fee reform September 5, 2011 Insurance companies are to join with some of the UK’s biggest retail brands in a new campaign to crack down on no-win-no-fee legal claims. The Association of British Insurers is working with carmaker Ford, supermarket chain Asda and pub group Whitbread to call for reform of the UK’s injury compensation system that has led to [...]
£50m bill for ITV as staff live longer August 22, 2011 ITV has moved to offload the risk associated with its huge pension fund deficit in a £1.7bn deal with Credit Suisse. The complex transaction will add £50m to ITV’s pension-deficit, last valued at £312m. It has been designed so ITV can protect itself against current and former workers living longer than expected. The broadcaster has [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 21, 2011 Yorkshire Building Society Chris Pilling, head of branch network at HSBC Bank, has been appointed as chief executive of the UK’s second-largest building society. Pilling will join Yorkshire Building Society on 31 December, taking over from current chief executive Iain Cornish. Prior to joining HSBC as chief executive of its telephone and internet banking arm [...]
Cameron: Police tactics were wrong August 11, 2011 Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to crack down on street gangs as a national priority and said rioters behind the country’s worst violence in decades would be hunted and punished. “The fightback has well and truly begun,” he told an emergency session of parliament, acknowledging that police numbers and tactics had been inadequate at [...]
Riots damage UK reputation August 10, 2011 RIOTING gave way to recrimination in the capital yesterday, with the first wave of alleged troublemakers appearing in court. Among them were teaching assistant Alexis Bailey; Laura Johnson, the grammar school educated daughter of a rich businessman and an 11-year-old child. While violence was largely contained across London, fresh clashes broke out in Eltham, where [...]
Riot and looting damage will cost UK well over £100m, insurers say August 9, 2011 RIOTS across London and other UK cities over the past four days caused “well over £100m” of damage to property and businesses, the insurance industry said yesterday. As residents and business owners across the capital and cities such as Birmingham, Leeds and Nottingham counted the cost of days of wrecking and looting, insurers raised their [...]
Insurers say London riot losses “well over £100m” August 9, 2011 Damage from riots in London has cost the capital “well over £100m” in insured losses, an insurance industry group has said. The Association of British Insurers has raised its estimate of the damage from three nights of violence and looting across swathes of London from “at least tens of millions” to more than£100m after it [...]