Throwback Thursday: CII merger; Norwich Union losses

10 May 1990: Thumbs up for CII merger

A proposed merger between the Chartered Insurance Institute and the Chartered Building Societies Institute received a ringing endorsement from a working party for the two bodies.

The proposed new name for the body was the Chartered Institute of Insurance & Financial Services.

Then CII director general David Bland said the merger offered an opportunity to bring together insurance professionals, financial advisers and building society staff under a common educational standard with a code of conduct recognised by the industry and the public.

The merger was set to be put to the vote of the CII’s Council in July and at the institute’s annual conference in September.

Technology gap causes concern

Insurance professionals will have to be technologically literate to operate effectively in the future, the Insurance Institute of Ireland’s national education officer Joe Whelan warned.

He also raised concerns that the CII’s 1992 syllabus contained “no reference whatsoever to technology.”

Norwich Union hit by motor losses

A substantial deterioration in motor results was the main factor behind the increase in commercial and personal underwriting losses at Norwich Union, the insurer now known as Aviva, from £11m to £49.8m.

The only other adverse factor cited by Norwich Union was the cost of subsidence, where claims doubled to £10m.