PIB Group has agreed a five-year extension to its premium finance partnership with Premium Credit across its operations in the UK and Ireland. The renewed agreement builds on a relationship that has now been in place for more than 20 years.

Alps has launched a fleet guaranteed hire vehicle policy that provides access to a hire vehicle if an insured vehicle is undriveable in the event of a road traffic collision, fire, malicious damage, or theft.

Open GI says two-fifths of brokers believe that in-person and telephone distribution will be more important in the years ahead, although 60% point to digital distribution as the main channel of growth for the market. The findings were published in a white paper based on distribution and placement research conducted in association with SparkMinds.

Ageas UK and Saga Plc have gone live with their 20-year affinity partnership, which was first announced at the end of 2024. Motor new business has gone live this week with home new business scheduled to be up and running in Q1 next year.

Non-standard commercial lines specialist Tower Insurance Brokers has secured a multi-million-pound funding facility from investor TDC, which will be used to accelerate further growth. Tim Forshaw founded Tower in 2017. It now controls gross written premium of almost £40m.

An investigation by the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department has secured a conviction from Nottingham Crown Court against Matthew Johnson for fraud by false representation in regard to a number of false insurance claims made to Axa Insurance.

Aviva has teamed up with Percayso Inform to enhance its data enrichment capabilities across a range of both personal and commercial lines. Aviva said the multi-year agreement would support its pricing, underwriting and claims operations.

JMG Group has acquired SafeSchool, which is a health and safety consultancy with a focus on the education sector. Under the deal, SafeSchool becomes part of Risk Support Services, which is the risk management and consultancy division of Butterworth Spengler, a JMG Group company.

Mutual marine insurer UK P&I Club has joined SEA-LNG, which is a coalition that supports the shipping industry’s methane decarbonisation pathway and promotes the use of LNG, biomethane and e-methane as marine fuels.

EY has forecast that the UK motor market will return a net combined ratio of 101% in 2025, rising to 111% in 2026. This follows the 97% it achieved in 2024, the first time the market had been profitable since 2021. EY said the deteriorating outlook was due to downward pressure on premiums and ongoing inflation.

Send Technology Solutions has signed a partnership deal with Vega IT, which will see Vega IT use its system integration expertise to support Send in deploying its underwriting platform to a wider range of re/insurers. Send’s platform is designed to integrate with other systems such as policy administration, CRM and data warehousing. Vega IT will help ensure it does this as efficiently as possible.

Insurance provider Hastings Direct and law firm HF have secured a judgement at Uxbridge County Court against Nagarasa Ramanan, who is the director of dissolved company NKR Motors Claims Ltd, for making fraudulent credit hire claims. The court awarded damages and costs of £82,243.96 to Hastings Direct.

Managing general agent Pen Underwriting has agreed an expanded multi-year capacity deal with Zurich that will support its fleet proposition. The deal extends the longstanding relationship to provide capacity for the hazardous goods, tankers and environmental industries and from the start of the year will also include Pen’s broader fleet risks portfolio, including passenger transport risks.

Westfield Specialty International is going to launch a Luxembourg subsidiary to enable it to underwrite risks on company paper and expand its current capacity provision which is delivered through Lloyd’s syndicate 1200. It expects the Luxembourg subsidiary to begin writing business from April next year.

The Financial Conduct Authority has issued additional guidance to assist firms to combat bullying, harassment and violence in financial services. The regulator said its guidance covered how firms could apply rules on minimum standards of behaviour as well as the factors they should consider when assessing whether someone is fit and proper for their role.

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association has announced that the theme for its 2026 conference will be Time:To. The professional body said the aim was to encourage firms to put a focus on their present situation and to take decisions that drove meaningful change.