AMI Insurance began in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, New Zealand, in 1926 as the South Island Motor Union (SIMU), and grew to be the second biggest residential insurer in New Zealand. It was a mutual insurance company, meaning it was owned by its policy holders, until it was bought out by

IAG New Zealand IAG New Zealand (IAG NZ) is the New Zealand subsidiary of Insurance Australia Group. It is the largest general insurance company in New Zealand, just as its parent is the largest in Australia. It has a number of insurance brands it has acquired, ...

in 2011, following the

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

History

Effect of Canterbury earthquakes

After the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

, there was uncertainty about AMI's financial state, due to doubt over obtaining sufficient

reinsurance Reinsurance is insurance that an insurance company purchases from another insurance company to insulate itself (at least in part) from the risk of a major claims event. With reinsurance, the company passes on ("cedes") some part of its own ins ...

cover for further earthquakes, plus lack of exact figures from the government's EQC to indicate how much of the earthquakes' insurance costs would have to come from Allied Mutual Insurance (AMI). The New Zealand government talked of bailing out the company up to $1,000 million because of the chaos that would ensue if it collapsed. The government eventually agreed to a NZ$500 million support deed. However, large losses led to a $76 million shortfall of its $198.6 million regulatory capital requirement and so forced the controversial sale of AMI to

, the local arm of Australia and New Zealand's largest insurance company, Insurance Australia Group. IAG NZ had already acquired major insurance names in New Zealand, such as NZI (formerly New Zealand Insurance) and

State Insurance State Insurance is an insurance company based in New Zealand. , it is a business division of IAG New Zealand, a subsidiary of Insurance Australia Group. History State Insurance was formerly called the State Insurance Office. Previously, it had ...

, and with acquiring AMI's business (other than Christchurch earthquake-related work) IAG covered 60% of the domestic insurance market.

Southern Response

The government created a government-owned company, Southern Response Earthquake Services, to take over the part of AMI's work that related to the Christchurch earthquake repairs. It was responsible for settling claims by AMI policyholders for Canterbury earthquake damage that occurred before 5 April 2012. Perceived poor performance of that organisation led to some protests and a lawsuit, but a large percentage of the easier repairs were actioned despite a period of work outstripping resources in post-quake Canterbury. In 2018 it was revealed that four years earlier Southern Response had employed private investigation company

Thompson and Clark Thompson & Clark Investigations Ltd, known as Thompson and Clark or TCIL is a New Zealand private investigation agency founded in 2003 by principals Nicolas Guy 'Nick' Thompson and Gavin Shane Clark. The company has been involved in repeated scand ...

e to attend and record public meetings held by groups of AMI/Southern Response claimants. A report by the State Services Commission found that in doing so Southern Response had acted inconsistently with the State Services Code of conduct on a number of occasions in 2014–2016.

2020 closure of branches

On 23 July 2020, IAG announced that AMI would be closing all of its 53 branches and its remaining State office in New Zealand in phases. The Albany,

Botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

, Te Rapa,

Mount Maunganui Mount Maunganui (, ) is a major residential, commercial and industrial suburb of the Tauranga metropolitan area, located on a peninsula to the north-east of Tauranga's city centre. It was an independent town from Tauranga until the completio ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

Hornby Hornby may refer to: Places In England * Hornby, Lancashire * Hornby, Hambleton, village in North Yorkshire * Hornby, Richmondshire, village in North Yorkshire Elsewhere * Hornby, Ontario, community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Cana ...

, and

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

offices would close in June 2021 while most remaining offices would close on 18 September. The

Timaru Timaru (; mi, Te Tihi-o-Maru) is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home to ...

branch would remain open until 27 November 2020. 65 branch manager jobs would be eliminated while 350 jobs would be transferred to customer service and other departments.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Financial services companies established in 1926 Insurance companies of New Zealand Organisations based in Christchurch