Rapid responses October 18, 2012 Greek reform [Re: Greece must stop hitting snooze and wake up to economic reform, yesterday] Although Matthew Melchiorre is right to criticise Greece’s politicians for failing to reform their state, he misses a bigger issue. Politicians aren’t operating in a vacuum. Much of the Greek public – quite unlike the Estonians or Irish – doesn’t accept [...]
Aon founder buys insurer from Lloyds September 19, 2012 PAT Ryan, founder and former chief executive of insurance giant Aon Corporation, is set to snap up insurance provider Direct Group from the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group. Ryan’s brokerage firm Ryan Specialty Group will buy the Doncaster-based firm from Lloyds’ private equity business LDC for an undisclosed sum, following regulatory approval. Direct [...]
Aon founder buys insurer from Lloyds September 19, 2012 PAT Ryan, founder and former chief executive of insurance giant Aon Corporation, is set to snap up insurance provider Direct Group from the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group. Ryan’s brokerage firm Ryan Specialty Group will buy the Doncaster-based firm from Lloyds’ private equity business LDC for an undisclosed sum, following regulatory approval. Direct [...]
Who ate all the pies in Mayfair at hedgie lunch October 16, 2012 TO the gilded rooms of Dartmouth House yesterday, where the wealth management industry flocked for the second annual Macmillan Pies and Prosecco luncheon – Mayfair’s equivalent to the traditional Gull’s Eggs luncheon held every year in the City. A highly indulgent menu choice for midday on a Tuesday, but all for a very worthwhile cause, [...]
Insurers find that central banks are all too predictable September 26, 2012 HUNDREDS of homes being evacuated due to flooding in Scotland and northern England wasn’t the ideal backdrop for Lloyd’s of London to announce its upbeat interim results, boosted by a “favourable claims climate”. Then again, even as the number of flood alerts rises, it needn’t sink the Lloyd’s insurance market’s optimism, partly because of its [...]
Lloyd’s chief says premiums must increase September 26, 2012 LLOYD’S of London chief executive Richard Ward yesterday said that insurance premiums must rise, on the same day that the market announced profits of £1.53bn for the first six months of 2012. “Rates do need to go up broadly across the insurance sector,” he told City A.M.. “Outside catastrophe-exposed classes premiums have been moving sideways.” [...]
Brit Insurance set to rebrand September 13, 2012 BRIT Insurance, the sponsor of the England cricket team, is preparing to launch a major rebranding exercise, City A.M. has learned. It will complete a transformation that has seen parent company Brit Group dispose of its non-core UK business and agreed to sell Brit Insurance Limited, its legacy business, for £190m. Brit will instead focus [...]
FTSE driven lower by collapse of BAE’s mega-merger with EADS October 10, 2012 GLOBAL growth worries prodded Britain’s top share index lower yesterday as a failed merger with a French peer hurt shares in defence and aviation firm BAE Systems. London’s blue chip index closed down 33.54 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 5,776.71 as volumes on the index remained light as whole, just 88 per cent of [...]
How income tax has become such a nightmare for so many October 29, 2012 WHENEVER you hear a politician promising that a painful measure will be purely temporary, run for the woods, tin hat in hand. The most painful of all policies, the income tax, was first introduced in Britain as an emergency measure to pay for the Napoleonic wars. From the beginning, as Kwasi Kwarteng and Priti Patel, [...]
How income tax has become such a nightmare for so many October 29, 2012 WHENEVER you hear a politician promising that a painful measure will be purely temporary, run for the woods, tin hat in hand. The most painful of all policies, the income tax, was first introduced in Britain as an emergency measure to pay for the Napoleonic wars. From the beginning, as Kwasi Kwarteng and Priti Patel, [...]