Competitive insurance - CRIS

The Centre for Risk and Insurance Studies (CRIS) at Nottingham University Business School is developing a programme of work on competitiveness in insurance markets.

Competition in UK motor insurance markets has been examined by Stephen Diacon, who presented the results at the CRIS London seminar in November, with evidence that the competitiveness of the market has been tending to fall over the past 20 years.

Separately, a report for the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs examined the effi ciency of European insurance markets. Paul Fenn, who led this work, concluded that the Swiss authorities should try to lower barriers to international competition, which may be adversely affecting the effi ciency of the Swiss insurance industry.

Other insurance-related work from the Centre includes a report by Chris O’Brien for the Society of Actuaries on UK with-profi ts insurers’ Realistic Balance Sheets, while Kevin Dowd continues to be closely involved in modelling mortality (with Andrew Cairns and David Blake).

The Centre’s risk-related activities include staging a conference on Banking risk after Northern Rock, while Margaret Woods initiated the fi rst European Risk Conference (held at the University of Münster in Germany, in September) and is co-author of a recently published book, International Risk Management.

Further information about the Centre is available from christopher.obrien@nottingham.ac.uk, while the Centre’s newsletter, Crisline, can be downloaded from www.nottingham.ac.uk/business/cris/NewsLetter.html