Rothesay Life buys £860m of UK ‘bad bank’ mortgage loans September 27, 2018 Insurance giant Rothesay Life has bought an £860m equity release portfolio from the UK government's "bad bank", which was set up following the financial crisis. The portfolio was sold by UK Asset Resolution (Ukar), a holding company for the closed mortgage books of failed lenders Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley and Mortgage Express. Read more: [...]
Insurer Ardonagh agrees to buy Swinton brand in £165m deal September 27, 2018 Ardonagh, the UK’s largest independent insurance broker, has announced a £165m deal to buy specialist insurance firm Swinton from a French rival. It will sell some of Swinton’s assets to fund its bid to take over the group, which has existed since 1957 and has a focus on motor and home insurance. It intends to [...]
Saga’s voyage of recovery interrupted by declining profits September 27, 2018 Retirement insurance and travel firm Saga this morning said it was making strong progress on its recovery despite reporting declining underlying before-tax profit. Underlying profit at the firm dropped 3.7 per cent to £106.8m – which was due to Saga investing heavily in its business and marketing, chief exec Lance Batchelor told Morning Wire The firm's [...]
How psychology explains why we make money mistakes and our attitude to financial risk September 26, 2018 Many of us don’t think that we’ll ever experience a financial shock, whether that’s the boiler breaking down, an unexpected bill, or having to take extended time off work due to sickness or injury. Despite this, the Financial Conduct Authority found that more than half of UK adults show one or more signs of [...]
EY-backed London marine insurtech Concirrus raises £5m September 25, 2018 London insurance technology startup Concirrus today closed a further £5m fundraising effort from deeptech investor IQ Capital and EOS Venture Partners, taking its total amount raised to date to £12m. The news comes after the firm signed a global deal with Big Four accountancy firm EY in April earlier this year, pushing Concirrus’ disruptive machine [...]
Natural disasters halve Lloyd’s of London profits September 21, 2018 Pre-tax profits at Lloyd's of London have halved in the first half of 2018 as the insurance firm struggled under the weight of a series of natural disasters. The figures Profits dropped by 50 per cent to £0.6bn, compared with £1.2bn in the same period the previous year. For the first six months of the [...]
Insurance giant makes a £4.3bn bet on the future of Brexit Britain, Uni-leaving doesn’t make sense, and Macron’s not one to mince words September 21, 2018 The news that US insurance giant Marsh and McLennan has swooped on British rival Jardine Lloyd Thompson in a shock £4.3bn move sparked a lot of City chatter about the future of the sector. Will other US firms look to snap up UK rivals as they eye expansion? As one Lloyd’s veteran put it [...]
Rothesay Life the frontrunner to acquire £900m Government mortgage portfolio September 20, 2018 British insurance giant Rothesay Life is the frontrunner to acquire a £900m mortgage portfolio from the Government, it has been reported. Rothesay will buy the equity release mortgages from UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), according to Sky News. Read more: What effect did the financial crash have on UK property? The news comes six months after Rothesay Life acquired [...]
Lloyds Banking Group reportedly plans to set up insurance subsidiary in Luxembourg September 20, 2018 Lloyds Banking Group will reportedly set up a subsidiary in Luxembourg to allow it to serve life insurance customers in the EU after Brexit. The firm has had initial discussions with regulators in Luxembourg on securing a licence for a subsidiary, Reuters reported. The Scottish Widows brand, which Lloyds TSB bought exactly 17 years before [...]
Over-50s holiday and insurance company Saga hires new finance boss from Zurich September 20, 2018 Saga has ended its six-month search for a chief financial officer with the hire of James Quin from Zurich. Quin, who will join on 1 January, will become Saga’s chief financial officer (CFO) and executive director. He joined Zurich in 2013 from PwC and prior to that was a managing director at Citi where he [...]