Cantillon: Choose high insurance or high awards, says FBD boss

Fiona Muldoon hasn’t lost the ability to call it as she sees it.

As head of banking and insurance supervision at the Central Bank, she hit the headlines in 2012 for scolding a room of bankers at an industry conference. Last year she returned to the commercial world, joined then-ailing insurer FBD as finance director in January before taking over as interim chief executive in July and taking on the job proper by the time the year was out.

With Government departments currently looking into what’s driving runaway claims and costs in this country, and as insurers having hiked motor rates by 38 per cent in the past year, Muldoon says we need face one serious question.

"You can either have high High Court awards or cheap insurance – you can't have both," she told The Irish Times yesterday.

In order to cut expensive lawyers out of the picture, the Personal Injuries Assessment Board needs, in the first instance, to be put on a stronger footing, forcing claimants to go to the board before going to court, she says. It seems, in fairness, like a reasonable start.

Internal issues

Closer to home, Muldoon has also been forced to grapple with issues in FBD itself since she took over.

Under the new chief executive, the group has put aside tens of millions of euros of additional reserves for claims, cut costs, raised €70 million in capital from Canadian firm Fairfax Financial Holdings and a further €48.5 million divesting a stake in a property joint venture.

She’s also brought in fresh blood in recent months, appointing a new chief financial officer, John O’Grady, who previously held senior positions at Liberty Insurance and Aviva, and former Ulster Bank executive Jim Ryan as chief commercial officer. The board has also been overhauled.

The company is targeting a return to profit in the first quarter in insurance underwriting, having seen its pre-tax loss for the first half of the year narrow to €3.65 million from €96.4 million for the same period last year. It aims to be fully profitable next year for the first time since 2013.

Investors seemed to like the noises coming from FBD yesterday – with the stock rising as much as 12.2 per cent to its highest level since December.

It makes a pleasant change to how they have typically recoiled on the release of results from the insurer in recent years.