HUGE BUSINESS

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21039, 15 February 1940, Page 11

HUGE BUSINESS

WAR INSURANCE BRITISH GOVERNMENT SCHEME RESOURCES OF MARKET (By Telegraph.—Prasa Association) WELLINGTON, Wednesday The circumstances leading up to the biggest series of insurance transactions in the history of the world, compulsory war risk on stock and commodities in Britain, were outlined to-day by Mr A. K. Gray, of Wellington, who has just returned from abroad. Mr Gray, who is a director and general manager of Bennie S. Cohen and Son (N.Z.), Limited, paid a high tribute to the flexibility and tremendous resources of the marine insurance market in England for its ability, with the assistance of the Government pool, to absorb the whole of the marine war risk offering. This included not only risks on British hulls and cargoes, but also by far the greater part of neutral marine insurance, in itself a striking testimony of the faith in the British markets’ ability to pay. When the Government decided on compulsory war risk insurance it meant the handling of the biggest block of business in insurance history. Lloyds, brokers and companies were handling the business, acting on a commission basis for the Government pool, but neither Lloyds nor the brokers carried the risk.