Norwich Union

History

Norwich Union was founded in 1797 in Norwich, when 36-year-old merchant and banker Thomas Bignold formed the "Norwich Union Society for the Insurance of Houses, Stock and Merchandise from Fire", a mutual society owned by the policyholders who received a share of the profits. This in turn became known as the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Office.

In 1808 Thomas Bignold established a second mutual, the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society.

In 1997, its bicentenary year, Norwich Union demutualised and floated as a public limited company on the London Stock Exchange.

In 2000, Norwich Union merged with CGU,

Following an extensive pilot, in October 2006, Norwich Union introduced a novel type of auto insurance called Pay as You Drive (PAYD). A GPS receiver and mobile technology are placed in a car and risk factors (time of day, distance, mileage) are monitored. The information is transmitted back to the insurance company. Drivers using their vehicles at low-risk times of day or on low-risk roads or driving low mileage get a discount on their motor insurance premiums. There are several business method patents covering this invention. The Pay as You Drive service was withdrawn in 2008 due to lower-than-expected volumes of new business.

Norwich Union supported a European public service ad campaign against careless driving at too great a speed. The ad campaign was known as "The Faster the Speed, the Bigger the Mess".

Customer service

In December 2007, Norwich Union was fined £1.26m by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), after customers with life assurance policies were put at risk of fraud. The FSA said the company had failed to deal with the issue properly, even when it had been alerted to the problem.

After discovering an overcharging error that dated back to 2001, Norwich Union agreed to compensate their clients with a cheque for £300 each, due to charges that exceeded the 1% cap imposed by the government. The final amount of compensation was expected to exceed £11 million.

International operations

In Canada, Norwich Union was well known as a direct marketer of life insurance products, often promoted through frequently repeated television advertisements. Most famous was a spot beginning with the phrase, "It's Patrick! He took out life insurance." Following the Norwich/CGU merger, this unit was sold to American International Group and renamed AIG Assurance, which decided to drop the "Patrick" ads. The unit was then resold in 2009 to Bank of Montreal, and is now known as BMO Insurance.

In Australia the operations of Norwich Union Australia were rebranded as Aviva in October 2003. The company then consisted of three businesses: life insurance, fund manager Portfolio Partners (which reports directly to London) and the master trust/financial planning service Navigator.

References

References

1. (29 April 2008). "Norwich Union brand to disappear". [[BBC News Online]].
2. (12 October 2017). "Savings. Investments. Pensions.".
3. "Norwich Union gears up for name change".
4. (5 March 2020). "Aviva corporate website".
5. Worcester]], to the municipal authorities.Insurance Fire Brigades 1680–1929; The Birth of the Fire Service: The Fire Insurance Brigades 1680–1925 [Illustrated] (Paperback) by Brian Wright (Author) {{ISBN. 978-0-7524-4509-0
6. "Surveillance fears force Norwich to scrap 'pay as you drive' car policies". [[The Independent]].
7. "Dailymotion".
8. (17 December 2007). "Norwich Union fined on £3m fraud". [[BBC News]].
9. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/3416226/Norwich-Union-pension-customers-to-get-refunds-totalling-11m.html Norwich Union pension customers to get £300 refund], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 10 November 2008
10. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzPyu2XbV4U Norwich Union Commercial 1990] posted on [[YouTube]]
11. (13 January 2009). "BMO to buy AIG's Canada life insurer for C$375 million". Reuters.
12. (2 October 2003). "Norwich Union Australia to adopt global Aviva brand". financialstandard.com.au.
13. Anthony Hughes. (4 November 2002). "Norwich rides on Navigator".