Quinn Group hit by Anglo bank losses

Quinn Insurance chief executive Colin Morgan said losses from the now nationalised Anglo Irish Bank caused a pre-tax loss of €425m, the Irish Times reports.

Quinn wrote off €829m in 2007 as a result of the investment in Anglo Irish and warned it would write off a further €130m in 2008.

Sean Quinn has said his group will make cash profits of €400m to €500m this year.

Premiums to rise

Morgan said that the increasing cost of claims had driven up customer premiums by 10% over the last six to nine months and that he expected premiums to rise by a further five to 10% by the end of the year.

“There would be concern about the trend of increasing claims, both on the increase in frequency and in the cost,” he said. “We are in a recession, and in recessionary times the claims frequency does tend to increase a bit.”

Tough on claims

Morgan explained that the company needed to be aggressive in handling claims if it felt that some cases were potentially fraudulent.

“If we are taking premiums off people – and at the end of the day we are paying out claims on their behalf – we need to be aggressive if there is a suspicion around the validity of the claim,” he said.