Zurich insurance fined over customer data loss

Insurance giant Zurich has received a hefty fine from the UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority. The fine has been imposed because of a serious breach of security relating to the loss of customer data files. The insurance company is said to have lost the confidential data files of forty six thousand customers.

According to reports the fine that has been imposed by the Financial Services Authority comes to over £2.27 million, even though there was no evidence to indicate that the data in the confidential files had been misused. A range of data was included in the files and this included identity information, details of bank accounts, credit card details, and more.

The FSA said that some of the data work had been outsourced by Zurich to its South African unit, which then went on to lose a back up tape back in August 2008 that was not encrypted. However, the FSA also said that it was a year later when the loss of the data was actually discovered.

Zurich was accused by the FSA of failing to oversee its outsourcing arrangements effectively, and had inadequate control over the data that was being processed. The incident was described as being unacceptable by the FSA, which said that the matter was made worse by the loss being undiscovered for a year,

An official from the FSA said: “Zurich U.K. let its customers down badly. To make matters worse, Zurich U.K. was oblivious to the data loss incident until a year later. Firms across the financial sector would do well to look at the details of this case and learn from the mistakes that Zurich U.K. made.”

Tags: data, finance, regulator, Zurich, fsa, Zurich Financial Services

50% of Brits don’t seek financial advice

More than half of people in the UK have never sought professional advice regarding their finances, a new study has revealed.

Research from Zurich has shown that 57 per cent of all Brits and 84 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 years old have never asked for financial advice.

Half of the people surveyed said that one of the reasons they have not approached anyone for advice about their money situation is that they feel is would not be of much value to them as they do not have a large disposable income.

Tony Solomon, director of Life Marketing at Zurich, said: “The sheer number of people walking blind into their financial decision-making presents a disturbing trend in society and an alarming picture for the future.”

Figures from Credit Action have revealed that the households pay an average interest of £3,790 each on their total debt every year.

Tags: Zurich, Human Interest, Credit Action, picture, GBP

Flood claims ‘could total £1 billion’

Claims made by the thousands of Britons who have been affected by the recent floods and storms could total some £1 billion, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has commented.

The figure follows estimates by the ABI that 27,000 homes and 5,000 businesses experienced damage as a result of the recent inclement conditions.

Extra insurers are already being redeployed to visit properties as quickly as possible, the ABI’s director general Stephen Haddrill said, but even with these emergency measures “normal standards of service” could not be delivered.

Outlining how older customers, those with health difficulties and families were being supported first, Mr Haddrill added: “We hope that other people can bear with us as we work through the backlog. We will reach everyone as soon as we can.”

Insurer Zurich says it has received more than 2,600 claims in the last ten days as a result of the flooding and has flown in loss-adjusters from the Europe, US and Australia to cope with the problem.

Jon Cawley, UK property claims operations manager for Zurich, said: “This flooding is taking longer to clear than previous flooding, for example in Boscastle three years ago.”

Tags: flooding, storms, insurer, Zurich, Outlining, Types of insurance, operations manager