Throwback Thursday: Thatcher’s honours; General Accident boycott
Insurance Post’s Throwback Thursday steps back in time to January 1991 to remind you what was going on this week in insurance history when former prime minister Margaret Thatcher honoured insurance men and brokers’ plans to teach General Accident a lesson were thwarted.
3 January 1991: Industry men honoured by Thatcher
The New Year’s Honours list included knighthoods for Bat Industries chairman Patrick Sheehy and Securities and Investments Board chairman David Walker.
Among the many entirely male recipients of nods was Barry Sherlock, general manager of Equitable Life and a former Life Offices Association chairman, and Ron Artus, group chief investment manager and director of Prudential.
Court blocks General Accident boycott
David Worsfold reported the Institute of Insurance Brokers’ boycott of General Accident was banned at the eleventh hour after the Office of Fair Trading won an interim injunction in the courts.
The ruling meant any broker wanting to switch away from General Accident would have to justify the decision without any reference to the boycott or the provider’s scheme offering free insurance to new owners of Ford cars.
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