Week in Post: trampolining, brokers in the dark and cake

But others in the industry were suffering a rather darker and less bouncy weekend as software provider SSP and its brokers were hit by a power outage that took its Pure Broking Platform offline.

Despite apologies and attempts to get the service back up and running, by midweek the cracks were beginning to show as the Motor Insurance Bureau noted it had no record of those who might be left uninsured as policies failed to auto renew.

The service suffered anther set back on Thursday night and brokers are now on the war path after it was revealed the service provider chose not to use its mirror facility. 

Also at loggerheads this week were Access to Justice and the Association of British Insurers after the former called the latter out over its defence of motor premium rises in the face of falling whiplash claims.

In response to a Post article in which the ABI rejected claims that insurers were "profiteering" over savings on personal injury claims, lawyers took to twitter to refute the points made by the group.

Access to Justice's Andrew Twambley told Post: "The ABI's James Dalton is a master of the Boris Johnson cake strategy: he wants to have his cake and eat it too.

The sector did have some positive news this week as research found that insurance is no longer one of the worst three sectors for customer service and experience. Engine revealed the proportion of people saying insurance is among the worst industries for customer service dropped from 27% last year to 25%, dropping from third to fifth worst, after being overtaken by public services and broadband/media.

Also in the news tech startup Neos has begun beta testing its connected home insurance service with its partner Hiscox. As of early 2017 consumers who have policies with Hiscox will have the opportunity of protecting their homes and preventing accidents due to the 24/7 monitoring and smart technology provided by the service.

Our market commentators worth looking out for were Esure's Stuart Vann who urged the industry to keep whiplash on the governments agenda; Allianz's Mark Merrix who described 10 years of collaboration with the Insurance Fraud Bureau and the ABI's Ben Howarth who looks at insurance for autonomous cars ahead of the trade body's motor conference.

This week we launched our Lloyd's and London Market State of the Nation research where research editor Michele Bacchus talked to 33 London market players and got their views on globalisation and the talent pool. Look out for more instalments in this series next week.

Also worth a read this week our reporter Rosie asked what the industry can do to implement a more eclectic workforce as Lloyd's Dive In festival nears
and our feature on solicitors professional indemnity, a market marked by uncertainty around aggregation of claims, Brexit and anti-fraud recommendations.

For our Spotlight on pet insurance Post revealed animal lovers really should be going more to protect their pets and in an associated video Crif's Sara Constantini ask what insurers can do to tackle fraud in this area.

Finally, it was beards all round as our Digital Collective met to discuss all things techy - if you missed it check out the tweets #InsuranceBeards.

TTFN, I'm off to have my cake and eat it.

Stephanie Denton
Editor, Post