Weekly briefing: 8-14 April

The past week has seen Insurance Times expose the murky world of bribes. If you’ve ever wondered how insurance is traded outside of the UK, our investigation into corruption in emerging markets unravels the battles faced by insurers and brokers when writing business on foreign shores. The upcoming Bribery Act legislation will make it even more challenging for UK based operators to grow their businesses abroad in countries such as Russia. The region was described at “utterly corrupt” by one source familiar with the way insurance is placed in the Russian market. Read the investigation for more revelations.

The tale of controversial insurer Quinn Insurance is about to come to an end little more than one year after it fell into administration. The same can also be said for the man behind it all, Quinn Group founder Sean Quinn. We learnt today that Quinn Insurance administrators have accepted a joint offer from US insurance giant Liberty Mutual and Anglo Irish Bank to take over the general insurance business. The deal still needs regulatory approval but the administrators appear confident that they have chosen the best offer to secure the future of its 1,500 staff.

The announcement will come as a massive blow to the Quinn Group, which fought hard to retain control of the insurance business through its own proposal. The news prompted a major restructuring at Quinn Group. Sean Quinn has been removed from the board, and will no longer have any ownership or control of the business. The group is also restructuring more than 500 million euros of debt. In the UK, Quinn’s Manchester operation will close, resulting in around 30 job cuts.

The future of Quinn’s UK business – a book of private motor business – is unclear. It could provide the platform for Liberty to push into UK personal lines. However the insurer last month unveiled major plans to grow its UK commercial book, so the motor business may well seem surplus right now.

One other insurer reported to be in the running for Quinn; Zurich, has no motor fears. It hasoutlined plans to return to the UK motor markets with a bang later this year, after shaving £200m off its book when it pushed up rates 20%. Our exclusive interview with the Zurich UK top team revealed the insurer’s plans for the next year. It came in the same week as the AA published its British Insurance Premium Index, which recorded a rise in comprehensive motor policies of more than 40% in the 12 months to March 2011.

The commercial mid-market in the UK is a crowded space. So why like Liberty are other US insurers moving to take their own slice of the pie in the regions? We went in search of the answers.

After trawling through RSA's annual financial report we also uncovered how RSA chief executive Andy Haste has more than doubled his shareholding from 2.11 million to a staggering 5.11 million shares in the last year.

Danny Walkinshaw is digital news editor of Insurance Times.

Email: danny.walkinshaw@insurancetimes.co.uk