Norwich Union
Norwich Union is the biggest life insurers in the UK and has a very good position in the Motor Insurance market. It has been part of the Aviva group since a merger in 2000.
Aviva Business in the UK is still run under the name of Norwich Union who is the biggest sponsor of UK athletics.
Just recently Norwich Union has introduced a new Auto Insurance ‘Pay as you Drive’, a GPS receiver and mobile phone are installed in a car and different risk factors such as time and distance are recorded. Drivers that register as low risk get discounted Motor Insurance premiums.
In 1797 in Norwich, England Thomas Bignold founded the ‘Norwich Union Society for the Insuance of Houses, Stock and Merchandise from Fire’. This company was owned by the policyholders who received shares of the profits. This was to become known as the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Office.
Thomas Bignold opened another mutual company in 1808 known as the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society and in 1823 the Fire Society became part of the Norwich Union Assurance Company. They, like other fire insurers of the time, operated their own fire brigade to go to fires at premises insured by themselves and ran this brigade until 1929.
By the 20th century Norwich Union operated worldwide but during the last twenty years of the century withdrew from some countries considered to be unstable.
It was in 1997 that Norwich Union floated as a public limited company on the London Stock Exchange.
Norwich Union merged the CGU (this was formed from the merger of General Accident and Commercial Union in 1998) in the year 2000. A hundred years prior Norwich Union had tried to buy the General Accident.
On merging they formed the group CGNU that went on to become the Aviva Group. From 2005 the two companies operate in the UK as part of Aviva using the Norwich Union Insurance name.
Aviva Plc is the largest UK and the fifth largest insurance group in the world and trades in twenty-five worldwide countries most notably in France and The Netherlands. The company was known as CGNU originally and was created by the Commercial Union and General Accident merger. The Aviva name (meaning Spring or Renewal in Hebrew) was adopted in 2002 but the Norwich Union name remains for business in the UK.
Aviva is the holding company of the Aviva Group dealing with life assurance, long-term savings and general insurance.
Aviva wanted to merge with the Prudential in 2006 but the Prudential Board refused.
In 2005 the Royal Automobile Club became part of the Aviva Group.
The RAC plc is a motoring organisation based in the UK founded in 1897 to help motorists with roadside assistance. Their mobile mechanics were issued with uniforms in 1901 and in 1912 roadside telephoned were installed.
The RAC was acquired in 2005 by Norwich Union Insurance division of Aviva plc.
RAC Autowindows is also owned by Norwich Union. This is the only auto glass replacement company that has a factory making their own laminated windscreens.
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