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City watchdog fines AIG arm
Simon English, Evening Standard21.05.08
The insurer that paid out to the wife of "back from the dead" canoeist John Darwin has been fined £640,000 by the City watchdog for failures in its due diligence.
Unat Direct, an arm of giant US insurer AIG, did not oversee its call centres properly, according to the Financial Services Authority.
Unat used nine call centres to sell personal accident insurance but lacked proper management controls and staff were too quick to begin selling.
In one case, Unat failed to properly check on a call centre until 250 days after it had been selling. In another, a call centre sold insurance without FSA authorisation.
Unat paid £25,000 to Anne Darwin after her husband's fake drowning in 2002. Darwin returned to Britain earlier this year and handed himself in to police.
AIG, which sponsors Manchester United, is also in dispute with US lawmakers over former chief Hank Greenberg's alleged role in a conspiracy to boost performance data.
