Throwback Thursday: Labour’s red tape promise; FOS complaints
Insurance Post’s Throwback Thursday steps back in time to February 1995 to remind you what was going on this week in insurance history when the ombudsman predicted an uptick in general insurance complaints and Labour promised to create more red tape.
16 February 1995: Ombudsman braces for barrage
Laurie Slade, the insurance ombudsman, predicted a 10% uptick in general insurance complaints in 1995.
While motor and home insurance complaints provided the bulk of the ombudsman’s work, Slade said travel insurance had become a “hotspot” over the last year.
Do you see what he did there?
Labour’s red tape promise
While the Association of British Insurers may currently be hopeful that the current Labour government will cut through the “Gordon knot” of regulation, back in 1995 future chancellor, Alistair Darling, then shadow City spokesperson, told a Price Waterhouse conference that if his party got into power (which it did in 1997) it would repeal the Financial Services Act.
He said: “We do not believe that self regulation works. It is impossible to serve two masters; the public interest and trade interest.
“We believe that regulation is a matter of public interest and for that reason we propose to end self-regulation.”
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