What if Quinn goes bust?

The Irish Brokers Association (IBA) has warned that if Quinn goes bust compensation covers just 65% of personal lines claims and but commercial customers get nothing, the Irish Independent reports.

"Brokers have been notifying all Quinn customers of the issues and making them aware of the outcome should Quinn (Insurance) go into liquidation," confirmed IBA director of general services Brian McNelis.

Quinn has a significant commercial book, mainly focusing on small and medium-sized businesses but also insures a handful of major Irish companies.

Competition for business

Other insurers are taking the business. "They know nothing in a company name would be covered if Quinn goes down," one said. "We've had some of Quinn's biggest customers talking to us over the last few days, assessing their options, because of the uncertainty out there."

Ireland's three largest brokers stopped selling the Quinn policies a number of years ago.

Accounts probed

The Independent also said a scour of all Quinn Group published accounts shows the full scale of the loan guarantees was not published as claimed.

Sean Quinn insisted the guarantees were "fully disclosed" in statutory accounts for Quinn Insurance's subsidiaries, which had been available to the regulator for several years.

But the Independent says “A trawl of the published accounts for Quinn Insurance's 24 subsidiaries shows the guarantees are referenced in the accounts for just one company, Quinn Logistics Limited.”

Directors’ opinion

The Independent claims a note says the company has "entered into cross guarantees of the bank and other borrowings of group undertakings".

It adds that "in the opinion of the directors there are no indications that the company will suffer any loss", but there is no indication of how much the guarantees are for.

Quinn Group's spokesman said that a "similar wording" was also included in the accounts for seven other Quinn Insurance subsidiaries. These subsidiaries don't publish their statutory accounts, but the Financial Regulator could have requested copies.