NEWS July 25 Resolution and Friends Provident Become Insurance Giant

UK life insurance companies, Resolution and Friends Provident, have announced that they will be merging. This announcement came only two days after they had announced that they were having talks. The new entity will be called Friends Financial and with estimated combined assets of £195billion and estimated profits of £860million will overtake Standard Life to become the UK’s fifth largest insurer. The merger, valued at £8.6billion, will take the form of a share swap scheme. Resolution, the financially stronger of the two, will be the dominant partner, with 50.9% of the company. The company's current Chief Executive, Mike Biggs, will also become the chief executive of the merged company, while the head of Friends Provident, Philip Moore will be the deputy chief executive.

NEWS July 11- Indian Insurance Market to hit $60billion by 2010

Assocham, India’s top chamber of industries, has reported that the Indian domestic insurance market would rise from its current figure of $10.2billion to $60billion by 2010. The urban sector is expected to generate $25billion with $15billion being life insurance the rest being non-life. The rural and suburban sectors should bring in around $35billion with $20billion in life insurance and $15billion in non-life. This massive growth is being driven by consumer demand for more and better insurance coverage. A recent report states that if the technological advances in the industry and the de-regulation of the insurance market perform as well as predicted then the increase in growth could be even higher

NEWS June 28 – First Quarter Profits Fall in US Insurance Industry

US Property and Casualty insurers saw their profits for the first quarter of this year fall to $15.8billion compared to $16.7billion in 2006 and $17.7billion in 2005. This 6% drop was caused by a major slow down in premium growth and because one major insurer took on billions in liabilities from a foreign company. The premium growth was the lowest since 1992 and was caused mainly by increased competition and lower premium prices.

NEWS June 18 - Microsoft Updates IVC Framework

Trying to improve interchangeability of data between insurance companies, Microsoft has updated the content of its Insurance Value Chain (IVC) initiative. In May Microsoft also announced support for the industry-specific standards organisation ACORD.