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Throwback Thursday: EU shapes insurance & Allied Dunbar’s ambition

Throwback Thursday

Insurance Post’s Throwback Thursday steps back in time to October 1990 to remind you what was going on this week in insurance history when the European Commission was reshaping insurance.

18 October 1990: Brittan shapes single market

European Commission insurance proposals to create a single non-life insurance market were published.

Commission vice-president Sir Leon Brittan described the draft directive as “the final and decisive stage” of creating laws, regulations and safeguards for insurance co-ordinated between the then 12 member states.

The legislation was set to abolish the right for member states to seek a fresh, national authorisation.

Brexit, the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, happened on 31 January 2020.


Allied Dunbar’s gender target

Allied Dunbar bosses announced they wanted to double its proportion of female sales staff by 1995, but accepted “attitudes need to be changed first”.

According to then assistant director Bob Gill, in the past women had not been as productive as men but he felt this could change if they were offered assertiveness training.

He said: “It is important to increase their self awareness and confidence which is about more than trying to emulate men.”

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