Post magazine – 30 January 2014

In this week's edition the return of former Groupama boss Laurent Matras to Axa may herald a shake-up of the insurer's personal lines business, according to market observers.

Matras was unveiled as managing director of personal lines intermediary earlier this week, and explicitly stated a desire to clone Axa's success in commercial lines. "Axa has a huge opportunity in the intermediated personal lines market, and the primary aim is to replicate the achievements of the commercial lines business. I have every confidence we will do that," he said.

In other news Aon Benfield and Guy Carpenter have been mooted as frontrunners to take on the reinsurance brokerage for Flood Re; The Department for Transport has ruled out publishing a green paper on young driver safety until after research into how telematics can improve widespread driving behaviours has been considered; Gibraltar's minister for financial services and gaming has hit back at perceptions the territory's insurance market has an unfair advantage compared to London, amid efforts to expand on the region's traditional motor focus; and the insurance industry-owned Oasis loss-modelling framework aims to increase transparency and bring down modelling costs for users without detracting from existing market options, according to project director Dickie Whitaker.

Also in this issue, how do you think your company has fared over the 19 years of the British Insurance Awards? As part of the countdown to the 20th anniversary of the BIA, Post thought it would be interesting to find out the most successful companies over the first 19 years using a simple football-inspired scoring system of three points for a win and one for a nomination - however, the amount of merger and acquisition activity in the insurance industry since the first awards took place on the 3rd July 1995, meant this wasn't as straightforward to put together as first thought. Be sure to take a look and see who has done well, and for those who think they could do better; there is still time to enter this year's awards.

LV managing director of general insurance, John O'Roarke in the C-Suite this week explains why, when it comes to motor premium reduction, the government and industry are not on the same page.

British Insurance Brokers' Association chief executive Steve White kicks off a new sectionfor Post, Trade Voice, with his take on why the drive for improved standards and professionalism in the industry needs a unified voice.

With the Insurance Fraud Register finally ready for launch, Post asks if it will create a sea change in the way industry tackles fraud, in the first of this week's in-depth articles.

In addition, with a predicted increase in extreme weather events expected to add to the many difficulties already faced by farmers, Post asks how the insurance industry can better support the beleaguered sector; and a year on from the horsemeat scandal, Andrew Robinson, head of product recall services at Cunningham Lindsey, looks at how the crisis lead to more regulation in the food industry and explains why not all cases resulted in litigation.

Enjoy the read!