LV has proposed withdrawing from the enhanced annuity market, in response to a dramatic drop in demand for guaranteed retirement income products. The announcement came a few days after Standard Life announced it would stop selling annuities on the open market, and a few months after Aegon announced it was selling its entire annuity book. LV said two factors were behind the […]

Legal & General has formed a new trans-Atlantic insurance division to bridge its UK and US offerings. Legal & General Insurance will be led by Bernie Hickman, who became L&G Home Finance chief executive and Individual Retirement managing director in 2014 and has held roles at the company including UK Protection managing director, group financial controller, and investor […]

One of the best known Lloyd’s insurers today revealed a strategic pivot, saying its London market operations will “shrink materially” next year. Hiscox, whose Lloyd’s footprint can be traced back over 70 years, said it can’t generate enough profit when underwriting aviation, marine and energy and US large property policies in particular. Chief exec Bronek […]

RSA performed strongly in Q3 with underwriting profits, combined ratio and operating profits ahead of H1 run rate. Stephen Hester, RSA Group Chief Executive, commented: “We are very pleased with RSA’s continuing progress towards our ‘Best in Class’ ambitions. “Momentum in the business is excellent across the many improvements to customer service, underwriting effectiveness and […]

  The FINANCIAL — Swiss Re reported net income of USD 3.0 billion for the first nine months of 2016, despite the difficult market environment. All Business Units contributed to this strong result. Net income in Property & Casualty Reinsurance was USD 1.5 billion in the first nine months of 2016, reflecting solid underwriting. Life […]

The boss of insurance giant RSA refused to rule out replacing jobs with technology in a trend that he expects companies across the globe to harness. Stephen Hester explained this morning that getting computers to do more work was a key way of cutting costs out of business. He said: I would say that the […]

Standard Life has pulled out of the annuity open market. The announcement makes Standard Life the sixth insurer to pull out of the open market since the pension freedoms. In a statement Standard Life said: ‘In light of the significant changes in the retirement market since the introduction of pension freedom, we took the decision […]

Facebook has blocked Admiral from scouring social media profiles to set car insurance prices, forcing the company into a hasty climbdown. The internet giant said that Admiral’s contravened Facebook’s privacy policies, preventing the launch of the technology just hours before it was due to be launched. Admiral had planned to use Facebook status updates and […]

Prudential UK & Europe has hired Clare Bousfield as chief executive of insurance, subject to regulatory approval. She joins the business today (1 November). With more than 25 years of experience in the insurance and financial services industries, Ms Bousfield has built a strong reputation for leading and developing high performing teams across multiple business […]

Sometimes a mistake can turn out for the best, as Richard Rowney knows only too well. Just a few months into the job as chief executive of LV= Rowney is busy building the firm into a challenger brand. He wants it to be known for innovation and its “can do” attitude, alongside the values and […]