Insurance UK

  • May 21, 2024

    Freshfields Helps Warburg Pincus Buy Insurance Intermediary

    Private equity giant Warburg Pincus and Temasek of Singapore will buy Specialist Risk Group, a London-headquartered company that has brokered more than £1 billion ($1.3 billion) worth of insurance risk, the companies said on Tuesday.

  • May 20, 2024

    Lessors File Russia-Stranded Planes Cases After Major Ruling

    Two aircraft lessors have filed details of claims against insurers in London for a combined total of $62.1 million over planes stranded in Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine after a landmark ruling tossed attempts to move the cases and others to Russia.

  • May 20, 2024

    Watchdog Finds Pensions Minister Broke Rules On Expenses

    Paul Maynard, the pensions minister, broke parliamentary rules on expenses when he failed to properly manage the use of his taxpayer-funded office for political campaigning, a standards body has ruled.

  • May 20, 2024

    UK Leads Europe In Financial Services Investment, EY Says

    The U.K. has solidified its position as Europe's top destination for foreign direct investment in financial services as it attracted 108 investment projects in 2023 compared to 76 a year earlier, the Big Four accounting firm EY said Monday.

  • May 20, 2024

    Step Up Action On Financial Abuse, FCA Tells Firms

    The Financial Conduct Authority has called on regulated firms to take further steps to stop financial abuse of individuals through manipulation of banking or insurance products as it looks through the lens of the Consumer Duty.

  • May 20, 2024

    Pension Funds Under-Investing In UK Assets, Minister Warns

    Pension schemes are not investing enough in Britain, a Treasury minister has warned, adding that the government will consider what "further action" is necessary to stimulate the capital injection that lawmakers want for the economy.

  • May 17, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen a wave of claims filed against Verity Trustees Ltd., Harley-Davidson hit retailer Next with an intellectual property claim, Turkish e-commerce entrepreneur Demet Mutlu sue her ex-husband and Trendyol co-founder Evren Üçok and the Solicitors Regulation Authority file a claim against the former boss of collapsed law firm Axiom. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • May 17, 2024

    Pensioners Lose £80M In Credit Over Submission Errors

    The Department for Work and Pensions has said that retirees lost out on £80 million ($102 million) in payments to help top up their weekly income to a minimum level because they submitted inaccurate information about themselves in the last financial year.

  • May 17, 2024

    Insurers Seek Exclusion From EU Late Payment Rules

    European insurers have called for their exclusion from the Late Payment Regulation proposed by the European Commission that would fix a single shorter payment period, warning that it ignores how insurance works.

  • May 17, 2024

    FCA Sets Out Consumer Duty Priorities For Closed Products

    The Financial Conduct Authority has sent "Dear CEO" letters to multiple financial service firms, setting out its priorities for the July deadline to apply the Consumer Duty guidelines to closed-off products such as old savings accounts or insurance policies.

  • May 17, 2024

    ABN Amro To Sell Stake In Life Insurance JV Neuflize Vie

    BN Amro Bank NV said Friday that its Neuflize OBC French private bank branch has entered "exclusive negotiations" to sell the unit to the insurance subsidiary of BNP Paribas SA to form a strategic partnership in life insurance in France.

  • May 17, 2024

    Asset Manager Alpha Growth To Buy Insurance Manager

    British wealth manager Alpha Growth PLC said Friday that it will buy Guernsey-based insurance management company Jeometri for £450,000 ($569,000) to help it grow its insurance offering across the U.K.

  • May 17, 2024

    FCA To Weigh 'Sensitive, Emotive Issue' Of Probes Policy

    The Financial Conduct Authority has said it "will take time" to consider widespread concerns over its proposals to identify companies or individuals under investigation after lawyers said the move could damage careers.

  • May 16, 2024

    Pension Scheme Profit Warnings Ease In First Quarter

    The number of profit warnings issued by U.K.-listed companies with defined benefit pension schemes fell to 18 in the first quarter of this year, compared to 22 in the last three months of 2023, according to research published on Thursday by EY-Parthenon.

  • May 16, 2024

    Insurance Brokers Call For 'Breath' Amid Rising Regulation

    Increasingly demanding regulation from the Financial Conduct Authority is hampering insurance brokers and unnecessarily overlaps with preexisting practices the industry already follows, a trade body for the sector has said.

  • May 16, 2024

    MPs Call For Redress Program For State Pension Errors

    Lawmakers have urged the government to draw up plans by this summer for a redress scheme for retirement-age women who were short-changed on their state pensions.

  • May 16, 2024

    Average Pension Pot Value Plummets 66% Since 2012

    The average value of a defined contribution retirement savings pot has plunged by 66% in just over a decade, official figures revealed Thursday, as experts warned there was a risk of employers becoming stingier with pension benefits.

  • May 16, 2024

    Nationwide Cited For Compliance Breaches In PPI Market

    The competition watchdog said on Thursday it has written to Nationwide Building Society, telling the lender that it had breached the rules by giving clients incorrect information about insurance covering mortgage repayments.

  • May 15, 2024

    Baker McKenzie Guides £28M Pension Deal For Pharma Co.

    Canada Life has insured the retirement savings plans of more than 300 members of the U.K. subsidiary of Dutch pharmaceutical company Norgine Ltd. in a full buy-in transaction of £28 million ($35 million), with the deal guided by Baker McKenzie.

  • May 15, 2024

    FCA Charges 3 For Alleged £8M Pension Fraud

    The Financial Conduct Authority said Wednesday it has charged three consultants over an alleged fraudulent investment scheme in which victims lost £8 million ($10.1 million) of their pension savings.

  • May 15, 2024

    EU Insurers Press Commission On Priorities For Capital Rules

    European insurers have warned the executive arm of the bloc that implementation of agreed changes to the Solvency II rules must accord with its goals on climate change and increasing competitiveness.

  • May 15, 2024

    Lloyd's Further Tightens 'Cyberwar' Insurance Cover

    Lloyd's of London has tightened rules on members of the specialist insurance market over cover for state-backed cyberattacks.

  • May 15, 2024

    Experts See Risks In FCA's Soft-Touch Response To AI

    The Financial Conduct Authority has so far failed to detail its rules on artificial intelligence and is moving toward a reliance on companies to self-report, putting it at risk of deferring excessively to the sector it regulates, legal experts say.

  • May 14, 2024

    UK Gov't Rules Out NDA Ban In Harassment Cases

    HM Treasury said Tuesday that the U.K. government will not commit to a legislative ban on nondisclosure agreements in harassment cases, rejecting a call from MPs to bring an end to the "abusive use" of NDAs to silence victims.

  • May 14, 2024

    Insurance Broker Jensten Launches Major Restructuring

    British insurance brokerage Jensten said Tuesday that it is conducting a strategic restructuring by separating its underwriting business from its wholesale brokering division after recently raising nearly £170 million ($214 million) from its investors.

Expert Analysis

  • Shifting From Technical To Clear Insurance Contract Wordings

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    Recent developments on insurance policies, including the Financial Conduct Authority's new consumer duty, represent a major shift for insurers and highlight the importance of drafting policies that actively improve understanding, rather than shift the onus onto the end user, say Tamsin Hyland and Jonathan Charwat at RPC.

  • Recent Trends In European ESG-Related Shareholder Activism

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    New ESG reporting standards in the European Union, as well as recent climate change, board diversity and human rights cases, illustrate how shareholder activism may become more prominent in years to come as regulation and investor engagement continues to strengthen, say lawyers at Debevoise.

  • How Insurance Policies Can Cover Generative AI Risks

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    As concerns rise about the new risks that businesses face as a result of generative artificial intelligence tools, such as AI-facilitated hacking and intellectual property infringement, policyholders should look to existing insurance policies to cover losses or damages, says Josianne El Antoury at Covington.

  • Breaking Down The UK's Draft Updates To Prospectus Regime

    While there still may be changes, the U.K.'s near-final draft statutory instrument to update and in some parts replace the current on-shored EU prospectus regime is likely to represent a significant overhaul of the existing regime and may make U.K. capital markets a more attractive venue for listings for issuers, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • 4 Compliance Considerations Under FCA Consumer Duty

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    Following the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's recent introduction of the new consumer duty regime, firms will need to be mindful of data protection implications when managing their compliance with the duty and data protection legislation, say lawyers at Bird & Bird.

  • Swiss Privacy Law Reforms Present Divergences From GDPR

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    The differences between Switzerland’s recently reformed Federal Act on Data Protection and the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, particularly around data breach reporting and the liability of company officers, will need to be carefully managed by multinationals that may have competing obligations under different laws, say Kim Roberts and Vanessa Alarcon Duvanel at King & Spalding.

  • Opinion

    Russia Ruling Should Lead UK To Review Sanctions Policy

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    The High Court's recent dismissal of the first-ever court challenge to Russian sanctions in Shvidler v. Secretary of State sets a demanding standard for overturning designation decisions, highlighting the need for an independent review of the Russia sanctions regime, says Helen Taylor at Spotlight on Corruption.

  • Pension Plan Amendment Power Lessons From BBC Ruling

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    The High Court's recent ruling in BBC v. BBC Pension Trust upheld an unusually restrictive fetter on the pension scheme's amendment power, which highlights how fetters can vary in degrees of protection and the importance of carefully considering any restriction, says Maxwell Ballad at Freeths.

  • UK Securitization Reform Opts For Modest Approach, For Now

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    Recently published consultation papers from the U.K. Prudential Regulation and Financial Conduct Authorities on new securitization rules mainly restate retained EU law, but there are some targeted adjustments being proposed and further divergence is to be expected, say Alix Prentice and Assia Damianova at Cadwalader.

  • FCA Consumer Duty May Pose Enforcement Challenges

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    The new U.K. Financial Conduct Authority consumer duty sets higher standards of customer protection and transparency for financial services firms, but given the myriad products available across the sector, policing the regulations is going to be a challenging task, says Alessio Ianiello at Keller Postman.

  • How The OECD Global Tax Proposal Could Affect M&A

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    Following agreement on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Pillar Two proposal to introduce a global minimum tax, domestic implementation is expected to have a significant impact on international M&A transactions, with financial modeling, deal structuring, risk allocation and joint venture arrangements likely to be affected, say lawyers at Freshfields.

  • What Trustees Must Know About Virgin Media Pension Case

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    The High Court's recent decision in Virgin Media v. NTL Trustees could have significant consequences for salary-related contracted-out schemes, making it necessary for trustees to start examining any deeds of amendment during the affected time period, says James Newcome at Wedlake Bell.

  • Trustees Should Take Caution After UK Pension Tap Plan

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    The U.K. government's recent plan to boost technology startups by tapping into pension sector funds may risk the hard-earned savings of members, so trustees need to be mindful of the proposals in light of their fiduciary duties, say Beth Brown and Riccardo Bruno at Arc Pensions.

  • Factors Driving Increased Litigation Against European Cos.

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    European government regulation and enforcement, economic inflation and litigation funding are driving an increase in litigation, especially class actions, against corporations in Europe, a trend that seems to be here to stay, says Henning Schaloske at Clyde & Co.

  • Pension Trustee Case Could Lead To Fossil Fuels Divestment

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    While the recent Court of Appeal case McGaughey v. Universities Superannuation Scheme attempts to link fossil fuel investment by trustees to significant risk of financial detriment, it is concerning that two out of 470,000 scheme members could be permitted to bring a claim without ensuring that other members are represented, says Anna Metadjer at Kingsley Napley.

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