Daily briefing: Friday - Allianz keeps it steady

Allianz’s nine-month results have been as solid as a rock, again. This year has seen fluctuating performances from some of its rivals, but Allianz has been nothing if not consistent.

Allianz made an operating profit of €142m (£121m) for its UK general insurance operations in the first nine months of 2011, according to group results.

This is a 1% increase on the €140m reported in the same period last year.

In addition, Allianz’s nine-month combined operating ratio of 95.8% has not budged, staying steady at 95.8%, avoiding the pitfall of bodily injury claims inflation and the claims from the UK rioting.

The insurer may not have seen as much growth as the UK divisions of other European insurers such as Ageas, whose profits increased almost five-fold, and Zurich, whose profits went up by 15%, but it can certainly lay claim to being the steadiest.

More help for SMEs

The relaunch of the Exports Credits Guarantee Department as UK Export Finance has brought two pieces of unexpected good news for brokers.

The first is that the body will now take business from credit insurance brokers.

The second is more general. The chief executive of the body, Patrick Crawford, singled out brokers as a particular source of help for SMEs – the section of the business world that the body is now focusing more attention on.

The next step will be to see if the body, and brokers, can rise to David Cameron’s considerable challenge of increasing exports to new markets and securing finance.