Marc Jones reviews the news

This week we spoke to Marc Jones, News Editor of Insurance Day to get his take on the past week in insurance news.

What has been the stand-out story for you in the insurance market this week - and why?

The Supreme Court decision on the FCA appeal is going to have potentially huge implications for the insurance industry in the UK. We’re still seeing the ripples going out but at the very least, business interruption terms and conditions are going to be very carefully looked at. A lot of lawyers have been giving some fascinating and carefully worded responses to the Supreme Court’s decision.

Which news this week do you think will have the most long-term impact on the insurance business?

Covid-19 is constantly on everyone’s mind. The past year has been fascinating and horrifying and stressful, all in one. Oddly enough the insurance market, which has traditionally been very cautious about embracing technology, has reacted well to the various lockdowns and has gone online on a massive scale. Will this change be permanent? We’ll have to wait and see.

Who is your insurance personality of the week and why?

Denis Kessler of Scor and his comments about the pandemic’s influence on insurance. I’ve interviewed Denis several times and his ebullience is legendary.

What has been the most interesting/intriguing/surprising item you have seen in the background of any video-based calls so far this year and why?

Last year, when I first talked to my then Editor in Chief Shawn Moynihan of Euromoney from his flat in New Jersey I became aware that there was something… odd in the far background. It was hard to see, indistinct but large - and vaguely menacing. It was there in the next two team videocalls and finally I had to ask what it was. It turned out to be a life-sized cardboard figure of Chewbacca, as Shawn is something of a fellow Star Wars fan.

And finally: If you could interview anyone from the world of insurance and they had to answer your question 100% truthfully, who would it be and what would you ask them?

If I could choose anyone in the history of insurance it would be Cuthbert Heath, the legendary Lloyd’s underwriter, broker and syndicate owner. I’d ask him if he even thought twice before his legendary instruction to “Pay all of our policyholders in full, irrespective of the terms of their policies” in the wake of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Based on what I’ve read about him the answer would probably be ‘no’.