No, the earth didn’t move for me

Charlie Thomas, Reporter, Professional Broking

With reports that the earthquake which struck the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning will cost insurers at least £10m, Charlie Thomas asks: “Did anyone else miss the big shake?”

Apparently, a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck the town of Market Rasen at around 00:55 on 27 February. Miraculously, only one man was seriously hurt, suffering a broken pelvis after masonry crashed into his bedroom. The Association of British Insurers has released a statement, estimating that the insurance costs will run into “the low tens of millions” and over 1,100 home insurance claims were made within the first 12 hours. So how was it that I missed the entire thing? The tremors were reportedly felt from Southampton to Scotland, with London receiving “moderate” vibrations and yet I saw no evidence of any rumblings where I was. Perhaps I’m just a very heavy sleeper.

Speaking of rumblings, this week has seen a number of the UK’s biggest insurers rolling out their latest results. Several have elected to keep their combined operating ratio figures suspiciously near the bottom of their press releases. NU’s combined operating ratio rose to 106% (up from 95% in 2006), though excluding the adverse weather, the ratio would have been 97%. Axa fared little better with a COR of 105.7%, 10% of which was caused by the summer floods and January’s storm Kyrill, according to chief executive Peter Hubbard.

There’s been sufficient coverage of the results on our news section but for those of you who have avoided them so far I’ll provide a brief round-up: Axa’s general insurance and health insurance revenues for the UK and Ireland rose 8% to £3,499m and its Swiftcover brand saw policies rise 178% over 2007. Its underlying earnings in the UK and Ireland, including its broker base, decreased by £83m from £263m in 2006 to £180m in 2007. UK general insurance profits fell to £50m (2006:£150m) following a reserve release of £83m.

Norwich Union has had a rough year in the UK. Whilst its profits across the rest of the world didn’t fare too badly, in the UK NU’s profits, which included reinsurance, halved from £1,118m in 2006 to £433m in 2007 including £440m of reserve releases. Royal Bank of Scotland Insurance revealed its operating profit had fallen 9% but that its strategy of targeting lower risk drivers and increasing premium rates was starting to improve the sector’s profitability. Insurance premiums, net of fees and commissions were all down 2%.

Royal and SunAlliance dismissed a 10% drop in its UK 2007 underwriting results and instead pointed to the 6% rise in underlying profits to £682m, helped by its defensive policies that have kept it out of the worst of the problems in the US. Its UK COR was reported to be 97.6%, a figure the insurer expects to drop to 95% by this time next year.

The insurer also announced that it is to drop its historical names from April and simply be known as RSA. Speaking to the Evening Standard, chief executive Andy Haste explained: “We weren't allowed to use 'royal' in China, it was causing some problems in Canada with other users of 'royal', and in South America they can't pronounce it.”

Zurich has already announced its profits dropped £91m from £323, in 2006. Zurich’s COR was 104.8%, compared to 92% in 2006.

This week also saw the arrival of the top 500 Superbrands list which this year included 10 insurers. Lloyd’s ranked the highest at 44th in the list, followed by Axa at 113th and NU at 116th. Zurich narrowly missed out on the top 150, being placed at 154th, followed by Prudential at 175th, R&SA at 198th and Swiss Re at 312th. Allianz claimed 334th place, followed by AIG at 437th, with Hiscox trailing at 479th.

PB goes to press this week, so make sure you look out for your shiny new copy next week or, if you prefer, you can logon to professionalbroking.co.uk to catch up on all your favourite articles on the website. Keep the feedback coming in, we love hearing from you.

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