Zurich and RSA – the marriage is off
In August Zurich made an unsolicited bid proposal to RSA of £5.6bn, however, in September Zurich withdrew its bid for RSA citing heavy projected losses relating to the explosions at a container storage port in Tianjin in China, estimated at £177m Zurich said that the predicted losses coupled to weaker than expected profitability in its general lines business in the first half of 2015 will continue into the third quarter. RSA were at pains to point out that Zurich’s decision to withdraw from the bid which had been broadly accepted by the board had nothing to do with the due diligence undertaking.
GI complaints fall
The FCA have revealed that complaints about general insurance fell by 13% compared to the previous six months. The most complained about firms in GI were, Lloyds, Barclays, Bank of Scotland and HSBC - draw your own conclusions.
Insurance, boring but important
Research carried out by the ABI shows that UK insurers are paying out the equivalent of £77m in claims every day. £8.2m of this figure related to homeowner claims for domestic losses for repairs and replacement. Interestingly the ABI also found that whilst the average cost of building and contents insurance was only £24 pm, one in five UK households do not have any contents insurance.
The ABI also confirmed that the UK insurance sector continues to sit at the heart of our prosperous economy, managing assets in excess of £1.9trn - equivalent to a quarter of the UK’s total net worth - and as an industry contributing £29bn to UK GDP and £12bn in taxes.
