Many Britons Find Driving Abroad Trying

Many Britons find driving abroad difficult to master and find themselves travelling on the wrong side of the road or going the wrong way up a one-way street and through no fault of their own find they are victims of car theft and vandalism. Driving AbroadSainsbury’s car insurance has found that over 2 million Britons abroad admit to driving on the wrong side of the road, causing havoc for themselves and other drivers. Over 500,000 claim to have been stopped for speeding whilst driving abroad and over 400,000have been involved in a motoring accident while overseas. Ben Tyte, Head of Car Insurance at Sainsbury’s Finance said: “Drivers taking their cars abroad need to prepare, not just because they’ll be driving on the other side of the road, but because laws differ from country to country. It...

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Significant scale change pleases Ageas chief

Barry Smith, chief executive of Ageas UK, has claimed the insurer is on track to break the 100% combined operating ratio (COR) barrier but warned again that he saw no real signs of commercial market hardening. Speaking after the company delivered £882m in income for the first half of 2011 and profit before tax of £35.4m, he told Insurance Age: "I'm really pleased. What is encouraging is we see a significant change both in terms of the scale of the business and the profitability. That is probably a comment on all aspects of what we do." Ageas Insurance reported a COR of 100.5% (H1 2010: 106.5%) but Mr Smith indicated he was confident of achieving a double digit figure soon. "If you take the quarter two combined ratio it was 97.2%," he said....

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Willis Europe Acquires Polish Insurance Broker BCU AMA

Willis Sets Sights on Growing Polish Employee Benefits and Construction Sectors with Acquisition of BCU AMA London, UK August 25, 2011 - Willis Europe B.V., a division of Willis Group Holdings plc (NYSE: WSH), the global insurance broker, has acquired 100 percent of the shares of Polish insurance broker, Brokerskie Centrum Ubezpieczeniowe (AMA) Sp. Zoo. The deal, effective immediately, will further strengthen Willis' presence in the country, in particular in the burgeoning Employee Benefits and Construction sectors. Terms of the transaction are not disclosed. Major civil engineering projects are set to increase the growth of the Polish construction market by around 11 percent this year, while the IMF says that a rebound in employment growth...

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Phoenix Says First-Half Cashflow Climbed After Fund Mergers

Phoenix Group Holdings (PGH), the U.K.’s biggest manager of closed life insurance funds, said first-half cashflow climbed after it merged groups of policies and reduced costs to squeeze more money from its funds. Phoenix generated 496 million pounds ($813 million) of cash from its funds in the six months to June 30, up from 335 million pounds a year earlier, the London-based firm said in a statement today. That beat the 487 million-pound average estimate of four analysts surveyed by the company. The increased cashflow was due to a “series of management actions such as fund mergers, tax hedging and tax shelters,” Chief Executive Officer Clive Bannister said in a telephone interview. “There are clearly relatively arcane and technical processes...

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Aviva has launched its new online car insurance brand

Announced as part of its H1 2011 results, the new distribution channel forms part of Aviva's strategy to continue to grow its UK general insurance business. The new service will be available shortly on Gocompare.com and is already online at www.quotemehappy.com - with further price comparison sites planned for later this year. The new service offers fully comprehensive insurance only and is aimed at lower risk motorists who are aged between 21 and 75; have had no more than one at-fault claim in the past four years and own a car that is no more than 13 years old and is worth less than £40,000. Happy to serve themselves Steve Treloar, Aviva's retail director, said: "Quote me happy is an online-only insurance brand, specifically designed for...

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Admiral's share price falls despite posting record profits

MOTOR insurance group Admiral has seen its share price tumble, despite posting record half year results which saw revenues coming in at more than £1bn. The Cardiff-headquartered FTSE 100 business, which employs 4,330 across South Wales and is actively recruiting, saw turnover rise 53% to £1.1bn on the first half of 2010. Its board also announced a record interim dividend payment of 39.1p per share. Boosted by a rise in premiums across the sector – although they are now flattening – it also posted record half year pre-tax profits of £160.6m, up 27% on the first six months of 2010 However, a worsening in its combined ratio – a key indicator in the car insurance sector of profitability – impacted on its share price, which closed down on...

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UK bank insurance mis-selling complaints jump in H1

LONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Complaints against controversial loan insurance by customers at two of Britain's top banks rose by 25-30 percent in the first half of this year from the previous six months and may rise further in the current period. Barclays on Wednesday said there had been a 25 percent rise in complaints about payment protection insurance (PPI) policies. Lloyds Banking Group, the biggest PPI provider, has said complaints rose 30 percent. Banks face a bill of over 6 billion pounds ($9.8 billion) to compensate customers who were wrongly sold the controversial loan insurance, after the industry lost a legal fight in April. Analysts are now watching the pace of complaints to assess the final scale of compensation. There are about...

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Prudential Financial approved for China Life Insurance

(Reuters) - U.S. financial group Prudential Financial (PRU.N) has received regulatory approval to set up a life insurance venture in China with a unit of Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group, accessing the country's 1 trillion yuan ($156 billion) life insurance market. Prudential Financial and Shanghai Fosun Industrial Technology Development Co would set up the venture within the next 12 months, with Prudential's stake capped at 50 percent, in line with regulations, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a statement on its website. So far, 28 foreign companies, including HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L)(0005.HK), Axa SA (AXAF.PA) and Allianz (ALVG.DE) have entered China's fast-growing, but competitive life insurance market, which...

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