PB Week: Press week, Barry Smith’s ‘new job’ and the Connaught Hotel

Meanwhile on the way to work today [27 March 2009] it came as a great surprise to see Barry Smith, chief executive of Fortis UK's insurance arm, in today's City AM - a free London paper covering business news - being heralded as the chief executive of Fortis Bank. On page three underneath a smiling Barry, it reads: "Fortis Bank Nederland yesterday reported a loss of €18.5bn (£17.3bn), largely due to a writedown on the value of ABN Amro, which it acquired as part of a consortium including RBS. The bank, led by chief executive Barry Smith (above), also said it had taken a €922m charge from the bank's investments with alleged fraudster Bernard Madoff." Now that's either the quickest promotion in history or Barry has been keeping things very quiet. We hear he has already been given 'congratulations' around the Fortis office; nice job title, but the numbers aren't exactly what you would want to be associated with.

On Friday I was treated to breakfast at the swanky Connaught Hotel by the Home and Legacy team who were unveiling a host of broker only high net worth and mid net worth policies, including a move into the the motor market, its first non-property offering. When they said "any questions" at the end of their presentation, I asked how much Allianz had paid for them, but the answer was again not readily forthcoming. Home and Legacy see an opportunity in mid-net-worth home and car insurance, especially following Hiscox's decision to pull out this market for brokers. For more on high-net-worth see our Market Watch feature in April's Professional Broking.

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