Consumer protection: not out of the woods yet
14 September 2009
While the insurance industry can take some comfort in its exemption from new federal consumer legislation, it still has to provide a convincing argument that two sets of laws…
Analysis
The retail road to selling insurance
07 September 2009
Two of Australia’s most well known brands – Australia Post and Coles – announced last week plans to sell retail insurance products from their thousands of retail outlets…
The merging face of loss adjusting
31 August 2009
The news last week that major loss adjusters McLarens Young International and Freemans have at last finalised their merger arrangements was hardly a surprise…
QBE casts a shadow over the big three
24 August 2009
Local insurers' salad days are over…
Victoria’s $500 million levy question
17 August 2009
Is it possible to conceive a state government giving up a $500 million off-budget source of revenue..?
El Nino a harbinger of drought and bushfire
10 August 2009
The next El Nino, currently consolidating in the Pacific, is set to bring a hotter and drier summer to Australia than the one we have just experienced…
Chartis provides a safe map forward for AIG
03 August 2009
There is something very positive about the name Chartis…
Builders’ warranty – minor product, major pain
27 July 2009
The withdrawal of Lumley Insurance and CGU from the builders’ warranty insurance market has again thrown the spotlight onto an already controversial product…
A super market opportunity emerging
20 July 2009
Insurance products have been available in supermarkets overseas for more than 10 years with great success, but the direct distribution model has yet to appear on the Australian market…
Funding at a premium
13 July 2009
Few in the insurance industry would have felt the effects of the global downturn quite as acutely as premium funders…
September 1 must mark change of season at Suncorp
06 July 2009
Patrick Snowball’s start date as Suncorp CEO is eight weeks away, on September 1...
IAG’s ‘happy middle ground’ on flood
29 June 2009
News that NRMA Insurance is supplying flood insurance to its NSW, ACT and Tasmanian customers is likely to shake things up in the industry as the controversial topic of flood cover is raised once again...
Warning signs for home and contents cover
22 June 2009
With Australian insurers constantly pointing to the cost of insurance taxes as a major disincentive to home and contents cover, the recent experience of UK insurers provides an interesting perspective...
Need for profitability will harden rates
15 June 2009
Talk of a hardening of rates across all classes of the insurance market has been out there for quite some time – at least six months...
What’s The Buzz? Yet another niche cheapie
09 June 2009
Suncorp believes Bingle customers will eventually switch to AAMI once they start a family or buy a more expensive car...
Flood cover debate shows no sign of receding
01 June 2009
As wide tracts of northern NSW and south-east Queensland lie underwater, residents must wait to learn if their insurer is prepared to pick up the tab – was it storm or was it flood...
OHS laws are important, but safe workplaces less risky
25 May 2009
Keeping people safe in workplaces should be a hot topic for debate...
State governments continue to gouge insurance-buyers
18 May 2009
Victorian and NSW policyholders have been belted with yet another rise in the fire services levy, pushing up the cost of their premiums and further increasing the risk of underinsurance...
Transpacific sinks, and it’s no great loss
11 May 2009
A turbulent period in the life of Australia’s insurance industry was remembered last month with the appointment of a provisional liquidator to Transpacific Insurance Corporation...
Marine insurers feel the pinch as global trade slumps
04 May 2009
A 45% slump in global shipping trade in the final quarter of last year had a resounding effect on all major shipping ports...