Post magazine – 25 September 2014

In this week’s issue, Post is delighted to include its Top 100 UK Insurers supplement revealing AM Best’s Top 100 UK insurers. Also included are detailed rundowns of the top 20 firms along with a map showing the UK regional offices of each featured firm. We also interview AIG’s UK managing director Jacqueline McNamee, who is focusing on staff engagement to deliver the big ideas that will ensure the company’s continued success.

Post also hosted a roundtable, in which an illustrious group of women discuss the huge strides the industry has made on gender issues and the obstacles that still remain. We also look at the ups and downs of many UK insurance brands values, have commentary from AM Best's Catherine Thomas about falling rates and low returns on investment, and discover you can’t afford to ignore social media as a marketing tool.

In the news, industry anti‑fraud leaders are calling for a greater contribution from aggregators in the fight against application fraud after more than 180 000 dishonest motor insurance submissions were uncovered by the Association of British Insurers last year.

Bosses at the Insurance Fraud Register and the Insurance Fraud Bureau have pledged to work more closely with online distributors amid the rise in the number of fraudulent insurance applications.

Also in the news, insurers will need to undertake major restructuring or face a “significant increase” in their VAT bill, according to tax experts, if a ruling by the European Court of Justice forces authorities to amend their treatment of offshore entities; private investigators have hit out at the Association of British Insurers after the industry body called for an exclusion for insurers’ in‑house fraud investigation teams from planned regulation of the sector; and insurance leaders have welcomed Scotland’s rejection of independence from the UK and have vowed to closely monitor how ‘devo max’ proposals will impact the industry, amid calls for other UK regions to be granted greater powers.

We have a bumper C-Suite this week, with Ace Europe’s David Robinson and Allianz’s Jon Dye addressing insurers, and Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford’s Toby Esser and Arthur J Gallagher’s Peter Blanc for the brokers. Robinson claims the pressure is on for insurers to innovate and adapt to provide a relevant service to customers, while Dye gives advice on how to help build a career in insurance. Esser argues that the full force and considerable benefits of the technological age still hasn’t hit Lloyd’s of London, while Blanc wonders what brokers’ jobs will look like in 10 year’s time.

Also, Agrical’s Peter Thompson comments on the summer harvest period being a busy time of year for farmers – and consequently a busy time for the agriculture segment of the commerical lines market.

Mark Sands meets Cunningham Lindsey’s UK chief executive Phil McNeilage. He talks about how following a brief soujourn in Jamaica, he has spent the majority of his career with one company. He talks to Post about the changes occuring at Cunningham and the challenges ahead.

Having weathered the recession, the marine insurance industry looks to be heading into calmer waters. We investigate the next challenges and opportunities in store for the sector. And finally, we tackle claims leakage, looking at how natural disasters can test claims management systems to the limit, posing significant challenges to insurers.

Enjoy the read!