Blogs from June 2013
Direct Line is an insurance group in the UK, coming from the Royal Bank of Scotland. They have announced that they want to axe around 2000 positions this year, following suit to other insurers in the country who are all trying to reduce costs in this slow and competitive market. Direct Line are looking to save £130m each year by 2014, targeting a cost-base of £1bn in 2014.
Direct Line is Britain’s biggest car insurer with about 15,000 employees. They have been cutting costs a[...]
James Savery, 26 June 2013Read More...
Phillip Blond, ResPublica director says “Mandatory loan to insure loans could build confidence in lenders to lend”. According to an influential think tank, “Banks should be forced to insure loans to small and medium sized businesses to guard against bankruptcies and encourage lending”. ResPublica has come to prominence as David Cameron’s adviser on localism and mutualising public sector organisations. They said: “Consumer lending should also be protected with Insurance to encourage a wide range [...]
James Savery, 25 June 2013Read More...
Despite record profits, Walmart have decided that they will no longer offer health insurance to fresh part-time workers in the U.S who are working less than 24 hours per week. Walmart, which is the largest private employer in the U.S, has been making the health insurance benefit available to their part-time employees since 1996, regardless of how many hours they were working each week.
Walmart are also finding other ways to lower their healthcare spending: They are going to s[...]
James Savery, 21 June 2013Read More...
European Insurers have had a hard time finding a market among companies in relation to Cyber Crime. However, this may be changing in the future. For example, Sony suffered a huge data leak recently, giving hackers access to the entire database of PlayStation 3 customers. The European Union is working on new regulatory requirements which threaten to pose large fines on companies which are unprepared. In the USA, the cyber insurance market has grown to over £647,165,000. Europe still hasn’t follow[...]
James Savery, 20 June 2013Read More...
The average number of dog bite claims has fallen in the past year but the cost of each case is still rising, up by more than 50% in the last decade. Dog bites have been responsible for more than a third of all home owners insurance liability claim dollars paid out in 2012. In total, these claims cost more than £419 million, coming in at just under £25,000 per claim on average.
It seems strange that the rise in claim costs does not correlate with a matching rise in total claims[...]
James Savery, 19 June 2013Read More...
Due to the ‘compensation culture’ sweeping the UK, the Football Association (FA) has been forced to set up an insurance scheme for amateur players who are liable to be sued over bad tackles. Starting next season, all players must be insured. All of the 11-a-side teams will have to pay up to £82 each year as part of the National Game Insurance Scheme. The basic cover scheme will cost £26, so clubs will either be paying as little as £1.73 per player or as much as £5.47 per player per season. Over [...]
James Savery, 18 June 2013Read More...