Information AboutNorwich Union |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT NORWICH UNION | |
| insurance companies of the united kingdom | |
| companies based in london | |
| companies established in 1797 | |
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HISTORY Norwich Union was founded in 1797 , when 36-year-old merchant and banker Thomas Bignold formed the "Norwich Union Society for the Insurance of Houses, Stock and Merchandise from Fire", a mutual society owned by the policyholders who received a share of the profits. This in turn became known as the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Office. In 1808 Thomas Bignold established a second mutual, the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society. The Fire Society demutualised in 1823 when it absorbed the Norwich General Assurance Company. In common with many insurance companies against fire loss, they operated their own fire brigades to protect (only) the society's policyholders whose buildings were identified by " Fire Marks ". It was not unitl 1929 that the Fire Society gave up its last private brigade, in Worcester , to the municipal authorities. By the start of the 20th century, the various Norwich Union societies were operating worldwide. Norwich Union was an insurance company dealing in general insurance, motoring and life policies before its merger with CGU in 2000 which itself was formed from the merger of General Accident and Commercial Union in October 1998. The Norwich Union had tried to take over General Accident over 100 years earlier. CGU was a life assurance company and upon merging they formed the group CGNU which went on to become the AVIVA group. As of 2005, there are two companies operating in the UK under the AVIVA umbrella that use the name Norwich Union, Norwich Union Insurance (NUI) and '''Norwich Union Life (NUL)'''. Recently, Norwich Union has introduced a novel type of Auto Insurance called "Pay as You Drive". A GPS and a cell phone are placed in a car and different risk factors (e.g. speed, distance, etc.) are directly monitored. The information is transmitted directly back to the insurance company. Drivers with low risk factors get a discount in their auto insurance premiums. There are several Business Method Patents covering this invention. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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