Insurance in the 1970's

The expansion and growth of the motor insurance market seemed endless until a significant day in 1971.

On the 2nd of March 1971 the largest insurer of the day ‘Vehicle and General’, owned by Dr Emile Saundra, collapsed overnight. At this time there had been a severe winter and Vehicle and General endured massive claims as a result of the careless regard for the risks they were underwriting from all the High Street Brokers.

Suddenly the general public found themselves in an unbelievable situation. All those who had taken policies with the Vehicle and General were now without cover and the High Street Brokers were besieged with business to replace the cancelled policies. You might have expected the customer to take out their frustration on the Broker, but the Broker actually thrived from the situation. There were that many people insured with the Vehicle and General at the time it collapsed, that the 2nd of March became very significant for the insurance world. Customers taking out new policies besieged brokers and for many Years to come March became the busiest period of the year.

During the 70’ and 80’s the High Street Brokers thrived and many household names became well established, for instance, ‘Swintons’, who were originally started in Swinton, Manchester.

Once again it seemed that nothing would stop the massive growth of Insurance and High Street Broking until the development of the ‘Computer’ .When Computers appeared of the scene, the likes of Swintons took full advantage of them. They were able to offer the customer a better and quicker service than that of the manually generated quote. The broker did not have to have so much knowledge and they were no able to offer quotes for people who did not live in the close vicinity of the area. The Insurance Companies also loved this because it meant that the mistakes made on the manually generated proposal forms were now little and far between, which meant that payment was now being made on time. In offering this to the Insurance Companies the likes of Swintons could now demand better discounts then the other brokers on the High Street. Before long Swintons had spread throughout the Country and became the biggest and best known Broker in Britain.

Computers had developed so much that their use had become very relevant. It seemed that the industry had undergone the biggest change that could ever happen, until a further, and bigger revolution occurred in 1985.

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