Abbey Life has successfully completed a major part of its Year 2000 compliance work following the vetting of its head office systems by IT specialists CS Rand.
The IT specialist conducted tests on Abbey's main frame Cobol system, which runs its head office administration operations, to ensure it is free from the Millennium Bug. The project cost £2.5m in total.
Co-operative Insurance Services has declared record terminal and annual bonuses of £716.3m for life and pension policies. The payouts on 10-year and 25-year endowment policies have increased by up to 2.8 per cent. But investors in medium term policies of 15 years have seen a fall in their returns of up to 1.2 per cent. […]
Scottish Amicable is under fire from IFAs for locking nearly 500,000 policyholders into poor-performing funds.It linked up with six external fund managers in February this year after years of dismal performance from its own fund managers.But only regular-premium policyholders since February 1998 and single-premium policyholders since September 1998 will be allowed access to the new […]
The evolution of species is usually a slow and steady process. A similar pattern is normally seen with financial products. Over the years, new features or related services are added to gain competitive advantage or allow the products to adapt and serve different customer needs.Studies of evolution have shown that periods of exceptionally fast change […]
Remortgage opportunities for IFAs could disappear if the UK base rate falls to continental levels, according to mortgage packager Private Label.Private Label chief executive Stephen Knight is predicting that the UK could become similar to the 'bland Euro-Style mortgage market'.He says: "IFAs who advise customers to take a higher fixed rate or capped rate now […]
While equity valuations have doubled since the financial crisis, Simon Edelsten explains that there are still pockets of value. But not where you might think Macro-economic uncertainty is causing turbulence in equity markets. Artemis Global Select Fund manager Simon Edelsten says his investment themes are taking him in a different direction to some of his peers – away […]
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An MP has called the government’s plans to change the pension credit system a “backward step” and a “disgrace”. In January the government announced it will limit access to pension credits for couples from May this year. It has decided that pension credits will, from now on, only be available to couples where both partners have […]
Cutting back on costs can lead to a challenging environment for risk assets TINA, meaning “there is no alternative” to owning risk assets like credit and equities, has defined much of the current bull market. TINA wasn’t an accident, central banks purposefully sought to reduce the return available on safe assets to force investors into […]
From emotion recognition systems to AI compliance functions, the T3 conference points the way forward Adviser technology that appears in the US is often a sign of things to come here and gives a chance to learn from early adopters. One of the most valuable conferences I visit around the world is Technology Tools for […]