CENTURY CALLS IT A DAY IN MASSACHUSETTS MOTOR

Excessive regulatory controls and an ongoing legal dispute about how high-risk drivers should be parcelled out to insurers in Massachusetts have been cited as two reasons for Wisconsin-based Century Insurance deciding to pull its Massachusetts-based Century Middlesex unit out of the motor market at the end of the year. Century currently has less than 1% of the Massachusetts market. Smaller insurers in the state have long-complained that the way in which high-risk drivers were allocated to insurers impacted unfairly on smaller players. Century spokesman Chris Goetcheus said that dozens of insurers had pulled out of the state in recent years and that Century’s move was “obviously further indication this market is distressed and the system isn’t working”.