Good name for a dog
GENERAL Accident is a good name for an insurance company which loses £101 million in six months. Here come the five big general insurers to report their half- yearly figures, and three things are certain before the first chairman opens his mouth. They are all in the red, they will pay their dividends as if nothing had happened, and they will tell their customers that premiums must go up. General Accident, Commer- cial Union, Guardian Royal Exchange, Sun Alliance, Royal — how do they all get away with it? On their present form they make Lloyd's of London look profitable, the High Street banks philanthropic, and the Inland Revenue market-sensitive. The banks have learned the hard way that if they cannot make money by doing more business they have to save it by curbing their costs. Jobs and branches and offices and whole layers of management are going. Which of the big insurers shows any sign of learning that? Which can see beyond putting its prices up and assuming that it can make them stick? My theory is that they lack the discipline which, in other companies, is exerted by powerful and angry shareholders — the sort of thing that insurance companies are good at. When they own shares in each other, dog doesn't eat dog. I wish someone would bite them. Indeed, I expect that, in one way or another, someone will.
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