If you work in Insurance you'll be familiar with all the Insurance Industry magazines and papers that arrive on your desk at work or your mat at home usually on a Thursday.
There's a useful little resource online that lists all the websites of these magazines and newspapers, with all the familiar ones and a few more that we bet you didn't know about!
Mortgages are being squeezed as Banks reduce lending further.
The latest Credit Conditions Report from the Bank of England has indicated banks and building societies are likely to further reduce lending activity over the next quarter.
Noting lenders had reduced the availability of secured credit to households in the three months to mid-September by more than they had anticipated in the Q2 survey, due in part to declining house prices and the economic outlook, it added a further decline was now expected.
A spokesperson for UK Loans said "Confidence in the market is the catalyst for increasing the circular flow of capital. The downward trend in mortgage and public lending reflects the lack of liquidity flow between the lenders. We dont expect any deceleration in the downward trends until after the US general election, when confidence may enjoy a dead cat bounch. Whether this honeymoon period in the US will be enough to halt the downward spiral in the UK remains doubtful, given that the UK growth figures were based soley on overvalued housing stock and a general election victory for whoever in the UK will not enjoy the honeymoon period that the end of the Bush administration will inevitably bring."
With artificial inflation the bubble will always burst.
Massive Demand for Insurance Brokers to Sell or Merge
Leaving the current economic crisis to one side, there is more pressure on Insurance Brokers and IFA's than ever to sell their businesses as it it reported that books of insurance business are exchanging hands for up to four times their value.
Anne Malone - Insurance Broker Mergers and Acquisitions Director at Insuretec Ltd. who have been introducing buyers and sellers for over fifteen years, told Insuranceblog.
"We are seeing books of business and complete brokerages selling at up to four times their value. This is double what you could expect if your were selling your brokerage a year ago! There is a very strong demand for insurance brokers in the Home Counties. Particularly good books of medium sized business could go for even more as the Buyers compete. Recently we have also experienced seven and eight figure amounts being paid for established online insurance businesses as the Buyers try to cover every distribution channel"
The credit crunch appears to have had little effect upon the voracity of buyers to consume their smaller counterparts - if anything the opposite effect is seen.
There are some very large warchests out there as the larger businesses grow through acquisition.
Perhaps unlike houses - Now is the time to sell your business In racing parlance - the going has never been so good!
Nationwide gives false hope to housing market prices
U.K. house prices dropped 1.7% in September compared to the same point a year ago, according to data compiled by the Nationwide Building Society.
The monthly fall means that house prices fell 12.4% on annual basis, thought to be a direct knock on effect from ongoing turmoil in the mortgage market.
The average house price now sits at £161,797 a fall of £2,857 from last months average of £164,654.
Nationwide's Chief Economist, said:
“House prices fell by 1.7% in September. This brings the price of a typical house in the UK to £161,797, 12.4% less than at this time last year.
House prices have now fallen for eleven consecutive months, but the monthly rate of fall has been almost unchanged in the last three months.”
“The less volatile three-month-on-three month series has also barely changed for the last three months, after accelerating in the first half of the year. This may suggest the beginning of some stabilisation in the pace of house price falls."
Insuranceblog is inclined to strongly disagree with this analysis from Nationwide.
House prices in the middle bracket of 250000 to 500000 have dropped in most cases 25 to 30 percent in order to sell. In fact ask any estate agent and they will tell you that it is only those who bite the bullet that sell.
The problem with the whole housing market is that this mid-sector price range is the most bound, with owners hanging onto unrealistic valuations and prices.
Unrealistic owners are refusing to drop their prices because many paid over the odds in the first place. In some cases a 30% drop would put them in negative equity.
A 30% adjustment in the market downwards would be a realistic correctional target in order to see liquidity and movement in this mid-sector, which is the only solution to the current credit crunch crisis.
When it happens - watch Nationwide eat their words!!
If you've ever been frustrated when using one of the so called car insurance aggregator or comparison sites, often being sent off to another site and repeating the details you've already typed in - then you'll be refreshed by a new entrant to the market that can provide you with a cheap car insurance quote and buy in under three minutes.
Specialist car Insurer, Lancaster Insurance, has teamed up with specialist insurance systems company Insuretec Ltd to produce the system that will find you the best deal from over fifty car insurance schemes. Whether you're a young, lady, over fifty, performance car or classic car driver, the site will find you the best car insurance deal available for your needs.
Its refreshing to see that the unloved Republicans have stuck to their guns and said no to intervention - even it it means a crash and the collapse of their economy and all its global fallout. Why? Because in the UK the opposite situation exists where an underlying fundamental ideology of nationalisation to the rescue still exists!
Or does it?
I've just heard A Darling say 'we'll do whatever it takes to keep the economy stable'
Maybe, the Yanks are right - You cannot underwrite a House of Cards Institutional collapse - especially if your not getting the profit in the good times.
Obviously the UK Government thinks you can!
When the Japanese banking system collapsed in 1990 the only solution was the introduction of ZIRP - Zero Interest Rate lending from the State to the Banks in order to kick start the circular liquidity flows. It took ten years to recover.
Maybe there'll be a honeymoon periods in a month or so after Obama wins the US election handsdown. It might even help Mr Browns UK image, after all the Conservatives here (the republican equivalents) are marching around their annual conference here like headless chickens, triumphing the rise of New Conservatism and already talking about power. Why the glum faces then? These same people are being shot by both sides. The collapse of their beautified banking system and the value of their shares free falling, their system falling into the hands of the enemy (the current Government) has rather taken the shine of the promised election victory to come!
Well whoever wins it has just won a bucket of ****
Rumours are abounding that Lloyds board are trying to renegotiate the takeover of Halifax Bank of Scotland - its sending waves around the industry.
Well Mr A Darling it looks like you may have your first bank to nationalise.... It will probably be closely followed by Royal Bank of Scotland!
Hang on! - Whose in Charge? - a certain Scot Mr G Brown
Maybe he's planning to hand the Scottish banks over to the Scottish Parliament to run
Now there's a thought - Alex Salmon in charge of 2 of the UK's largest financial and insurance comglomerates!
Just been watching Sky news and the relative drops in the value of shares of the biggest banks ( and therefore insurers) in repercussion to the Dow dropping 777 points overnight.
Not surprisingly HBOS were top of the list with a massive 17% fall and then very worryingly were RBS with nearly 12% fall in the value of their shares!
The others like Lloyds and Barclays looked stable around the half to one percent fall.
So this tells us that the City thinks RBS are the next to fall
If this happens the ramifications to the Insurance world will be massive as RBS is a major player in the personal lines section. Check out the car insurance directory to see the number of famous brands that you didn't know were owned by RBS.
Hurrah ! Now we the taxpayers rescue another failed business - Bradford and Bingley - and as a country are now the proud sponsors of Bradford City FC (as well as Newcastle Utd!).
Bradford and Bingley (aka The Government) also sponsor the Bradford Bulls Foundation, Yorkshire County Cricket Club Indoor Cricket Centre and Bradford and Bingley RFC incidently.
Bradford and Bingley were one of the major culprits in the creation of the Credit Crunch with their ridiculous overloading of buy to let mortgages and self certified mortgages accounting for over 80% of their business, and directly accounting for the outrageous growth in house prices. It was bound to fail and City Analysts were predicting months ago that their shares were worth nothing -much to the annoyance of the banking sector!
It Stinks - these bad businessmen are allowed to create a house of cards in the UK housing market and walk away from it leaving us the taxpayers to pick up the pieces - whatever happened to the free market? And where were the FSA in all this?
On an Insurance front their book of business is relatively small in the larger scheme of things with a lot of home insurance particularly landlord insurance cover and mortgage protection insurance policies sold on the back mortgages.
Our advice to anyone holding these policies is to switch today. This applies particulary mortgage payment protection which is a monthly policy and is easy to cancel and set up elsewhere. With lenders charging more than five times the rates for this type of insurance than the independent sector - you would be wise to switch mortgage insurance today
Taxpayers sponsor Newcastle United - Is this Right?
Just been watching a Joe Kinnear video talking about the future of Newcastle United. Looking at the billboards in the background, and across the shirts, of the main sponsor ' Northern Rock ' it got me thinking.
Hey WE - the taxpayers (proud owners of Northern Rock) - are sponsoring Newcastle United.
Tony Blair must have made a pact with Gordon Brown when he left office!
This is definitely nationalisation through the backdoor!
Maybe you're a shareholder or investor who lost money in the Northern Rock collapse - what are your thooughts about this - Comment and let me know!
As a taxpayer I insist they sell Michael Owen to a London Club!
Seriously though, its not just the Football Club or Northern Rock or the Government which has been affected by the credit crunch - My best selling Newcastle United Credit card website has had its product - the MBNA Newcastle United credit card- discontinued due to lack of sales!
So its not just the club up for sale - if there's any Geordies out there who would like to purchase some prime ( currently redundant) internet real estate Newcastle-United.org email with your offers! - any offer considered - it'd make a good email - maybe!!
With the Autumn leaves falling and Winter looming on the horizon, the Summer touring caravan holiday now seems a distant memory.
However the UK's leading caravan insurance comparison site CaravanInsurance.org are warning owners this is the time of year when laying up you caravan for the winter you should be considering all the risks.
CaravanInsurance.org is the fastest growing touring caravan insurance comparison site on the Internet, now offering price and cover comparisons from over twenty different UK offerings. With a simple to use enquiry that only asks the necessary questions the whole quote and buy process takes less than a minute.
"Caravan Insurance is a lot cheaper when owners properly consider the touring caravans risks and manage them appropriately" said a spokesperson for the website which contains a lot of caravan insurance risk management material for those who are unsure of the risks to their touring caravans.
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