Stonebridge International Insurance Ltd

Last updated
Stonebridge International Insurance
Company type Private company
Industry Insurance
FoundedFebruary 20, 1997;27 years ago (1997-02-20)
FounderJ.C. Penney Company Inc
Headquarters,
Area served
Europe
Products Accident insurance, health insurance
OwnerGlobal Premium Holdings
Number of employees
11 (2022)
Website www.stonebridge-insurance.com

Stonebridge International Insurance (Stonebridge) is a British insurance company with its head office in Maidenhead. The company was providing insurance in western Europe and is licensed in the United Kingdom and had passported to the European countries including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. It provides a range of accident and health insurance products.

Contents

History

Stonebridge International Insurance was founded in 1998 by Cornerstone International Holding Ltd. with its ultimate holding company being J.C. Penney Company as a pan-European insurance company. [1] Stonebridge International Insurance Ltd was formed to provide a range of accident and health products.

On 18 June 2001, Dutch insurance company Aegon N.V. completed the purchase of J.C. Penney's Direct Marketing Services operations including the UK Group containing Cornerstone International. Stonebridge became part of AEGON Direct Marketing Services International and a member of the Aegon group of companies.

On 7 August 2014 the company was fined £8.3 million by UK regulators over tactics employed by companies which Stonebridge had outsourced the sale of many of their insurance policies to. These companies sold policies to some hundreds of thousands of people in the UK and Europe using telesales scripts that Stonebridge had provided, which the regulator said did not provide clear, fair and balanced information. [2]

In 2018, Stonebridge was voted as one of the worst insurance companies for receiving complaints, using numbers gathered by the Financial Ombudsman Service, receiving 40 general insurance complaints. [3]

In October 2020, Aegon sold Stonebridge to Global Premium Holdings for £60 million. [4] Stonebridge had been closed for new business since 2014 and had around 200,000 customers in the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Nordics and Ireland. [4] As part of this sale, the European business was moved to another member of the group. The operation of the business was taken over by Union Insurance Services the trading name of Union Income Benefit Holdings Ltd.. Stonebridge would refocus back on its core business of health and accident cover in the UK.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JCPenney</span> American department store chain

Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is an American department store chain that operates 656 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Men's, Women's, Boys', Girls', Baby, Bedding, Home, Fine Jewelry, Shoes, Lingerie, JCPenney Salon, JCPenney Beauty, as well as leased departments such as Seattle's Best Coffee, US Vision optical centers, and Lifetouch portrait studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial services</span> Economic service provided by the finance industry

Financial services are economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of service sector activities, especially as concerns financial management and consumer finance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ScottishPower</span> Scottish energy company

Scottish Power Limited, trading as ScottishPower, is a vertically integrated energy company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of Spanish utility firm Iberdrola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axa</span> French multinational insurance firm

Axa S.A. is a French multinational insurance corporation headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It also provides investment management and other financial services via its subsidiaries. As of 2023, it is the largest financial services company by revenue in France, and the 4th largest French company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unum</span> American insurance company

Unum Group is an American insurance company headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Founded as Union Mutual in 1848 and known as UnumProvident from 1999-2007. The company is part of the Fortune 500. Unum Group was created by the 1999 merger of Unum Corporation and The Provident Companies and comprises four distinct businesses – Unum US, Unum UK, Unum Poland and Colonial Life. Its underwriting insurers include The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company and Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primark</span> Irish multinational fast-fashion company

Primark Stores Limited is an Irish multinational fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with outlets across Europe and in the United States. The original Penneys brand is not used outside of Ireland because it is owned elsewhere by American retailer JCPenney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aegon</span> Dutch financial services company

Aegon Ltd. is a Dutch public company for life insurance, pensions and asset management. It is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and has 26,000 employees as of July 21, 2020. Aegon is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam and is a constituent of the AEX index. It operates a direct bank under the brand name "Knab" in the Netherlands. In October 2022, it was announced that AEGON's Dutch operations would be acquired by ASR Nederland. To the extent they had the AEGON trade name, it will become ASR; Knab and TKP will keep their names. Subsequently, AEGON reincorporated in Bermuda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Markel Group</span> US financial services company

Markel Group Inc. is a group of companies headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and originally founded in 1930 as an insurance company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Financial Group</span> Multi-level marketing company

World Financial Group (WFG) is a multi-level marketing financial and insurance services company based in Johns Creek, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, which sells investment, insurance, and various other financial products through a network of distributors in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It is wholly owned by Dutch life insurance multinational Aegon and operates primarily under the Transamerica brand in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aegon UK</span>

Aegon UK (Aegon) is an Edinburgh based financial services provider specialising in pensions, investments and insurance.

Assurant, Inc. is a global provider of risk management products and services with headquarters in Atlanta. Its businesses provide a diverse set of specialty, niche-market insurance products in the property, casualty, extended device protection, and preneed insurance sectors. The company's main operating segments are Global Housing and Global Lifestyle.

Mannok, formerly the QUINN group, is a business group headquartered in Derrylin, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The group has ventured into cement and concrete products, container glass, general insurance, radiators, plastics, hotels, and real estate. It was formed by Seán Quinn in 1973, developing from a small quarrying operation in Derrylin into a large organization, employing over 8,000 people in various locations throughout Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bupa</span> Company that offers health insurance and healthcare services.

British United Provident Association Limited, trading as Bupa, is a British multinational health insurance and healthcare company with over 43 million customers worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Agricultural Cooperative Federation</span> Cooperative company in South Korea

The South Korean National Agricultural Cooperative Federation was established in 1961 to enhance the social and economic status of its membership and to promote a balanced development of the national economy. Its role is divided into three areas: marketing and supply, banking and insurance, and extension services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verisk Analytics</span> American data analytics and risk assessment firm

Verisk Analytics, Inc. is an American multinational data analytics and risk assessment firm based in Jersey City, New Jersey, with customers in insurance, natural resources, financial services, government, and risk management sectors. The company uses proprietary data sets and industry expertise to provide predictive analytics and decision support consultations in areas including fraud prevention, actuarial science, insurance coverage, fire protection, catastrophe and weather risk, and data management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FirstRand</span> South African financial service provider

FirstRand Limited, also referred to as FirstRand Group, is the holding company of FirstRand Bank, and is a financial services provider in South Africa. It is one of the financial services providers licensed by the Reserve Bank of South Africa, the national banking regulator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company</span> HDFC ERGO

HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company Limited is a 51:49 joint venture firm between HDFC and ERGO International AG. It is one of the insurance entities of the Munich Re Group in Germany operating in the insurance field under the BFSI sector. The retail sector includes various products like health insurance, vehicle insurance, travel insurance, home insurance, personal accident insurance, and cyber insurance. The Corporate sector includes products like liability, marine, and property insurance. Rural sector products include rainfall index insurance, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, and cattle insurance policy.

Royal Sundaram General Insurance Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Sundaram Finance Group, is the first private sector general insurance company in India to be licensed in October 2000 by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India.

Health Insurance Innovations (HII) is a product agnostic insurance technology platform. The firm has headquarters in Tampa, Florida and is listed on NASDAQ. The company uses a cloud-based platform for licensed independent agents to enroll customers in products provided by insurance companies which provide the actual coverage. The firm also provides billing and information services for both the clients and the agents.

Bandhan Life Insurance Limited is an Indian life insurance company offering individual and group insurance online and offline. Founded in 2008, it is headquartered in Mumbai, India.

References

  1. "Stonebridge International Insurance Ltd - Our History". Union Income Benefit Holdings. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  2. "Stonebridge fined 8.3 mn pounds for mis-selling accident insurance products". Business Sun. Retrieved 29 Aug 2023.
  3. Richardson, Mark (29 Aug 2023). "Revealed: the insurance companies with the worst complaints record". Insurance Times. Retrieved 29 Aug 2023.
  4. 1 2 "60673982". S&P Global Market Intelligence. 9 Oct 2020. Retrieved 29 Aug 2023.