Liberty takes axe to Quinn's commercial book

Quinn Insurance is raising rates and scrapping unprofitable commercial business, its US parent Liberty Insurance has told brokers.

It means the Irish insurer will no longer insure workers in hazardous trades such as demolition, the Irish Independent reported.

Liberty has written to its brokers warning them it requires a “significant price correction” in its commercial insurance business, particularly in property and liability cover.

Liberty, which bought the business formerly owned by Sean Quinn out of administration, said a lot of the business previously underwritten by Quinn “widely accepted to be challenged with a high proportion of clients in hazardous trades”.

The insurer said much of its legacy commercial book was “seriously underpriced and forecast to be losing money into the future if left unattended. This situation is definitely unsustainable”.

It now plans to introduce a new range of minimum premiums before being prepared to take on certain risks. This includes a minimum premium of €1,000 (£805) per commercial policy which would rise to €5,000 for risks in high-hazard trades, the report said.

Liberty also circulated to brokers a list of 36 different categories of occupations it was no longer prepared to insure, including abattoir workers, car dismantlers, demolition contractors, nightclubs and fishermen working on trawlers.

Liberty said it was not prepared to cover them any more because of their “poor claims records”.

“We appreciate it will not be easy for every broker/client to accept these decisions,” Liberty told brokers, “but as a business owner yourself we trust you will understand logically why action must be taken.”