ILC ARTICLE

ILC Breakfast News – Wednesday 19 January 2022

18th January 2022

Home & Property

Windsor steps down as Aviva CFO

Jason Windsor will step down as CFO and director of Aviva in July. He will take up the role of CFO of Persimmon.

Building over 13,500 new homes a year in more than 350 locations nationwide, Persimmon is one of the UK’s leading housebuilders.

LSM boosts team ahead of product launch

Liberty Specialty Markets has appointed two new senior underwriters to support the launch of a new real estate insurance product that targets offices, retail premises, hospitality and leisure facilities and warehouses.

Reporting to Head of Property Dermot Walsh, Steve Lawrence and Andrew Whittaker will write a new product focusing on larger clients including property investors, asset managers, managing agents and pensions funds. 

New fire alarm rules introduced

New government regulations are introduced next month stipulating that every home in Scotland has interlinked fire alarms. That means that if one alarm goes off the all go off, ensuring the occupier can hear the alarm regardless of where they are in the home.

As part of the new regulations, each home must have one smoke alarm in the living room, in every circulation space on each storey, such as hallways and landings, and one heat alarm in the kitchen.

Google acquires West End site

Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets (LGIMRA) has, in partnership with Mitsubishi Estate London, completed the sale of the Central Saint Giles office development to Google for $1bn. Situated in London’s West End, the building comprises 408,000 sqft of office space with 25,000 sqft of restaurants and cafes at ground floor level.

Meanwhile, Legal & General has acquired a new suburban build-to-rent (SBTR) scheme in Peterborough which will deliver 117 new family rental homes. The £25m acquisition is part of Legal & General’s ambition to be the UK’s first choice SBTR platform.

Hippo plans HOA expansion

Hippo is partnering with Socotra to support the development and expansion of its Commercial Lines Homeowners Association product into new markets. Socotra’s cloud-based platform covers the entire lifecycle of an HOA insurance policy and includes a complex rating algorithm, underwriting, and policy administration.

Hippo, which aims to reach more than 380,000 HOA communities nationwide, believes the partnership will enable it to reach customers in markets with a large number of HOAs. 

ClaimsTech

Blink eyes Canadian market

Fast-growing insurtech Blink Parametric has announced a new partnership with Managing General Agent AwayCare, which provides travel insurance products in Canada. The coverage will be underwritten by Canadian insurance group Northbridge Financial Corporation. 

Blink Parametric is a wholly owned by CPP Group and offers customers a proactive, real-time service to meet modern customer demands.

Digilog features at IIM live conference

The Insurance Institute of Manchester has confirmed its first live post-pandemic conference and networking drinks featuring Digilog CEO, Lior Koskas.  

Taking place at etc. venues Manchester on 20 January, the forward-looking event will welcome guest speakers Lior who will discuss his company’s expertise of voice analytic technology, and Marie Emerson, associate forensic engineer at Hawkins, who will consider our relationship with robots.

Next Insurance names new CFO

Digital insurtech Next Insurance has appointed Teodora Gouneva as Chief Financial Officer. She takes over from Michelle Cheung, who is stepping up to the role of Chief Corporate Officer.

Gouneva’s appointment follows another year of significant growth and will support the further development in management processes and growth in performance.

Automation vital to customer satisfation

Research compiled by Forrester found that up to one in five American adults used digital touchpoints in 2020, such as paying bills online or order food via an app.

With that ratio expected to increase, businesses have been urged to make the most of automation to improve service, streamline process and provide greater customer satisfaction.

CCP expands broker network

Insurance services and solutions provider CPP Group UK has acquired travel insurance and scheme specialist business Alpha Underwriting. The acquisition includes Alpha’s general insurance broker network and broker portal, which provides online quote, purchase and administration tools for brokers for a range of travel insurance products.

The deal takes CPP’s broker network to over 500 in just three years.

Motor

Register now… webinARC January 2022: Sustainability

Wednesday 26 January – 13.30 

In this webinARC we explore the key themes of sustainability across the industry to discover just what it means to different operations at this current time.  

– Charlotte Burnige, company secretary, Coachwork Renovations Ltd 
 – Joe March, head of commercial & network management, The Green Parts Specialists 
 – Chris Payne, head of networks & engineering – home & motor, LV= 
 – Stuart Sandell, assistant vice president – sales, UK & Ireland, Enterprise Holdings 

Thatcham Research reveals UK’s safest cars

Electric vehicles and hybrids dominated Thatcham Research’s list of the UK’s safest cars of 2021. The judges favoured affordable vehicles offering the biggest safety benefits to the greatest number of drivers, with a focus on active crash-avoidance systems and effective passive occupant protection features.

The list included the safety-conscious EQS from Mercedes-EQ, Nissan’s popular Qashqai, and the all-electric Enyaq by Škoda. Also featured are the Volvo-derived Polestar 2 and the hybrid-electric Toyota Yaris Cross.

Ben launches new self-referral service

Automotive industry charity Ben has launched a new self-referral route to access its free Life Coaching service, meaning anyone who works or has worked in the sector can now register for free Life Coaching sessions with experts.

Specially-trained Life Coaches will work closely with individuals to identify the areas in their lives that they would like to change or improve, gaining an understanding of where they are now and finding out where they would like to be in the future.

WTW announces Tempcover deal

Willis Towers Watson has announced a new deal with Tempcover to license Radar Live as its price delivery and decision engine platform.

Combining WTW’s Radar Live technology with Tempcover’s fully digital short-term vehicle insurance proposition provides a solution that delivers cutting-edge pricing, smoother rate deployments and improved speed to market, while users can access short-term insurance for trucks, motorcycles and commercial vehicles in just 90 seconds.

Market News

Ageas names chosen charity partner

Ageas UK has named Air Ambulance UK as its charity partner for 2022. The charity was selected by the Ageas Charity Committee.

Air Ambulances UK is the national organisation championing, supporting and representing the lifesaving work of the UK’s 21 regional air ambulance charities. 

Diversification key to consumer trust

Initial findings from the Chartered Insurance Institute’s Shaping the Future Together consultation have identified attracting and retaining diverse talent as a key to public trust in the profession. This is based on the Society of Claims Professionals.

The full report will be published later this year after which the Society of Claims Professionals and the CII will work together to ensure the sector attracts top talent.

Meanwhile, the CII has appointed Jonathan Clark as interim CEO. The former President of both the CII and the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters takes over from Sian Fisher, who announced last October that she would be stepping down on 31 March.

First Underwriting extends Accredited partnership

First Underwriting has announced a five-year capacity deal to place about £1bn of gross written premium into the market. Working in partnership with Accredited Insurance (Europe) Limited (Accredited), and with McGill and Partners, the deal will provide capacity for their range of specialty products.

This extended partnership with Accredited will continue to deliver on First Underwriting’s strategy to be a total solution for their broking partners and will support new product launches planned for 2022.

Lloyd’s confirms new leadership structure

Lloyd’s has confirmed the new operational structure that will be established when Chief Operations Officer Jennifer Rigby steps down at the end of the week.

Chief Financial Officer Burkhard Keese will take on additional responsibility for Technology and Operations as Lloyd’s Chief Operating Officer, while Bob James, Director of Market Transformation, will be responsible for the delivery of Blueprint Two. Blueprint Two is Lloyd’s transformational programme to secure its sustainable future.

Deadline for nominations extended

The deadline for nominations for Modern Insurance Magazine’s 2022 UK Customer Service Excellence Awards has been extended until Wednesday, 2 February.

Businesses are welcome to enter a maximum of four categories of the awards, which celebrate outstanding customer service in the insurance, broker, insurtech, claims, motor, home, CX, tech and supply chain markets.

The winners will be announced on Wednesday, 23 March.

ILC Day 2022

ILC has ‘officially’ launched ILC Day 2022 – encouraging everyone in the insurance claims industry to show their support for the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity by wearing red to work and making a donation to the incredible charity.

The event takes place on Monday 14 February – Valentine’s Day – and ILC is encouraging individuals and companies to get involved and do something great for charity.

To register that your company is taking part, please email Katherine Brooks.