Zurich: unthreading its needle

The sale of Threadneedle is the Zurich's latest effort to balance its books following heavy losses on its equity portfolio. Zurich has already announced heavy cost-cuts and has completed a rights issue to increase funds. With strong branding and performance Threadneedle is an attractive target, but finding a buyer might be tricky in the current market.

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Zurich: another day, another bond issue

Zurich's [ZURZn.VX] $1 billion bond issue comes hot on the heels of a similar move by Aviva last week. Zurich is seeking to consolidate after an over ambitious expansion program, but it needs to remember that a full recovery in the UK life insurance sector is still some way off.

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Zurich/L&G: annuity rate deal is commendable but consumers must be educated

The agreement between Zurich UK Life and Legal & General will benefit consumers with smaller pension pots who may not have access to the Open Market Option, allowing them to take advantage of an annuity rate from either provider. However, there is still a consumer knowledge gap regarding the Open Market Option, and little scope for less affluent consumers to gain access to financial advice.

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Zurich Financial: taking desperate measures

Once seen as one of the world's strongest companies, Zurich Financial has been forced into a desperate share issue and job cuts by mistaken acquisitions and poor risk assessment. Although its short-term future looks volatile, there's strong growth set for insurance market that will help Zurich and its competitors in the long term.

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Zurich Financial Services: aiming to net the wealthy

Zurich has launched its high net worth division, Zurich Private Client. The HNW market has stimulated a lot of interest recently, and Zurich hopes the insurance venture will help it move into further HNW services in the future. Its already large over-60 and high-income customer base suggests Zurich has a high potential for success in this market.

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Yodlee: stepping beyond basic aggregation

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Yodlee: account aggregation for the pros

The service, run in partnership with OneCore, allows small businesses to display their different financial accounts on a single page. Extending account aggregation's capabilities to business users could be a major part of the service's future. In some ways, the concept is better suited to SME users than to individual consumers.

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World economy: coughs and sneezes spread diseases

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Why US insurance agents support state regulations

The Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America is asking the new president to keep the state-based regulatory structure intact, stating that it is the best way to protect the consumer. Datamonitor believes this argument to be tenuous, as it serves agents and brokers rather than insurers and consumers, and advises President Obama to treat the proposal with a healthy level of skepticism.

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Why does bigger mean worse in private banking?

UBS, Credit Suisse and their fellow giants dominate the private banking industry. But minnows such as the UK's Adam & Co and Arbuthnot Latham vastly outstrip the big firms at generating revenues from the assets they do have. Datamonitor analyst Simon Pearse takes a look at why the smaller firms are so far ahead, and whether there is anything the big banks can do to make up the difference.

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