Zurich insurance fined over customer data loss
August 25, 2010 by Reno
Filed under News, News-Insurance
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,
Tags: regulator, credit card details, fsa, data, Zurich Financial Services, Zurich, financeAn 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.”
Retired couples amass savings
June 26, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
Retired couples in the UK have average savings and assets to the value of £269,479, according to a survey.
The average figure for single pensioners was found to be £134,739, Prudential reports.
Despite retired people having amassed such substantial savings, the organisation states that only 17 per cent of pensioners have sought financial guidance from a professional adviser.
Gary Shaughnessy, Prudential’s managing director of retail life and pensions, expresses surprise at the amount of savings and investments held by the average pensioner.
He adds: “The average pensioner could substantially boost their retirement income simply by using their savings and assets in different ways and exploring other options such as equity release to deliver an income.”
A separate study revealed last week by Zurich Financial Services suggests that one in five of the overall population believe it is too expensive to see a financial adviser.
In addition, it found that only three out of ten single people stated they had sought professional financial guidance.
Zurich launches anti-fraud team
February 16, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Insurance
A new investigation team has been established to deal with fraudulent motor insurance claims.
Zurich has set up the team in order to tackle the crime and the firm feels that having a group of professionals who are dedicated to fighting fraud is the way forward.
It means that there will now be motor fraud specialists who can focus completely on eliminating fraud and do not have to worry about dealing with other claims as well.
“The main objective of this scheme is to ensure we enable the teams to focus solely on the elimination of fraud,” said Scott Clayton, claims fraud and investigations manager at Zurich.
“The Insurance Fraud Bureau findings show that approximately 22,500 staged and induced motor accidents have taken place across the country since 1999 – this figure has increased year-on-year during that period.”
By cracking down on insurance fraud, Zurich believes that it will be able to offer benefits to its law-abiding customers by cutting premiums.
“By making it more difficult for individuals to commit fraud, we hope these new teams will act as a deterrent to would-be criminals and reduce the extra five per cent premium paid charged to honest customers to meet the cost of fraudulent claims,” said Tony Emms from Zurich.
The establishment of the anti-fraud team is good news for people looking to get car insurance, not only because of the potential financial benefits, but also as insurance fraud is often linked to other crime.
