Regulator probes KPMG audit March 5, 2012 The Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board has begun probes into KPMG’s auditing of Lloyd’s of London car and motorcycles insurer Equity Red Star and actuaries who advised it. In 2010 the firm, a UK subsidiary of Insurance Australia Group that insures one in four motorcycles on UK roads, crashed to a £240m loss after failing [...]
Earnings double at LV despite tough trading February 27, 2012 INSURANCE firm LV= yesterday reported profits of £72.1m for 2011, more than double the amount earned in the previous year. The company’s general insurance arm, formerly known as Liverpool Victoria, grew premium revenues by 23 per cent to £1.46bn and overcame declining investment returns to post the substantially improved profit. LV= is now the fourth [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 26, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES WELLS FARGO EYES EUROPEAN BANK ASSETS TO POWER EXPANSION PLANS Wells Fargo plans to increase the size of its wealth management and insurance divisions through acquisitions as well as buying more assets from shrinking European banks, its chief executive says. John Stumpf, whose bank’s market capitalisation is bigger than that of any other [...]
Blood, sand and oil in Arabia February 23, 2012 Film BLACK GOLD Cert: 12A *** A battle has finished and dead bodies litter the sand, rotting in the unforgiving sun. The victor, Sultan Nesib (Antonio Banderas) demands the sons of the loser, Sultan Amar (Mark Strong), as hostages. Amar agrees, as insurance against future war. Finally, both agree that the wasteland on which they [...]
Lloyd’s losses from Thailand reach £1.4bn February 14, 2012 LLOYD’S of London has estimated its net claims from last year’s Thai floods will hit $2.22bn (£1.4bn), the third biggest loss in the market’s history. The initial estimate is based on a projected worldwide cost to the insurance industry of $15bn–20bn and could change, but Lloyd’s is financially strong enough to cope according to chief [...]
Donating organs could prove a costly decision February 14, 2012 NEVER make yourself worth more dead than alive. This was the sage advice my father gave me as a boy and I have stuck to it ever since. That is why my life insurance pays out less if I die than the net present value of my likely future earnings. I trust my wife, but [...]
Cameron calls on insurers to cut premiums February 13, 2012 DAVID Cameron will today announce plans to reduce insurance premiums by cutting red tape, reducing legal bills and tackling the high number of spurious claims. Proposals include a plan to reduce the number of whiplash claims by enforcing a higher evidence threshold for injuries and cutting the £1,200 fee that lawyers can earn for small [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 12, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES SFO TARGETS CRIMINAL COMPANY DIVIDENDS The UK’s fraud investigator intends to confiscate shareholder dividends paid by companies convicted of criminal offences, after it won approval for a landmark court action. The Serious Fraud Office won a civil recovery order yesterday against the principal shareholder of a company that had admitted corruption. GROUPAMA TO [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 8, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES CAMERON RISKS FURY OVER EXTRA IMF CASH David Cameron has left open the door to Britain giving billions of pounds of new support to the International Monetary Fund – and indirectly to ailing members of the Eurozone – in a move likely to infuriate eurosceptic MPs in his own conservative party. Extra British [...]
Admiral slides as car insurers face OFT probe December 14, 2011 SHARES in motor insurer Admiral fell more than four per cent yesterday after the competition watchdog said it would probe whether motor insurance firms were inflating prices for fixing crashed cars yesterday. The Office of Fair Trading said it was concerned that drivers paying for third-party repair claims and courtesy cars are charged too much [...]