JEWISH GROUP STEPS UP ACTION AGAINST DUTCH INSURER AEGON

Dutch insurer Aegon is facing an escalation of action in the US over its refusal to join an international panel investigating holocaust-era insurance claims, a prominent Jewish advocacy group has disclosed. The World Jewish Congress, which is pushing Aegon and seven other European insurers to join the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims, said that it had approved a series of measures against the Dutch company. These range from urging a US boycott of the insurer’s San Francisco-based Transamerica unit to asking for insurance regulators to block any acquisitions or expansion by Transamerica. The congress said that it would ask the public to cancel service contracts with Aegon and ultimately urge shareholders to dispose of their stakes in the group. Aegon has insisted that it is not aware of any outstanding holocaust claims, while it said it would join the holocaust commission if it could do so in tandem with a separate Dutch programme to resolve wartime insurance claims.