Weblog - 6 May 2010 | People & Opinion

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Danny Walkinshaw rounds up the latest insurance stories online

The market has been anticipating the next stage in the tie-up between Fortis Insurance UK and Tesco Bank for some time, and there was a huge surge in traffic on insurancetimes.co.uk when details of the new business landed in the inboxes of online subscribers.

The whopping deal has led to the creation of Tesco Underwriting, which will be headed by Fortis’s Geoff Carter. The story made the online top five last year when Tesco confirmed its agreement with Fortis, and excitement among our online readership has yet to dwindle.

Another big deal developing is Marsh’s takeover of HSBC Insurance Brokers. As the second most popular story of 2009, it was no surprise that the latest stories connected to the deal made the top 10 this week.

The most clicked on out of the two was a story relating to potential job cuts within the company, renamed MBL. And the story detailing the new roles of some former HSBC staff within Marsh was not far behind.

Elsewhere, Quinn news continues to stake a place in the top 10 rankings, including news of Sean Quinn’s omission from the Irish Rich List. And the Co-op’s call for the insurance industry to support government compensation plans for asbestos sufferers provoked some response.

On Twitter, we asked followers of @InsTimesNews: ‘What would/can the insurance industry do differently in the event of a second volcanic ash cloud closing down the skies?’ One follower, @ABGroup, wrote: “Perhaps act with a degree of cohesion/clarity and with awareness of the reasons consumers buy travel insurance?” Follow us on Twitter to debate the big issues.