Groupama contraction of GROUPe des Assurances Mutuelles Agricoles (French for Group of Mutual Agricultural Insurances) is an international insurance group based in Paris, France.[1] Its UK subsidiary Groupama Insurances was created by the merger of Lombard Insurance Company Limited and Gan Insurance Company Limited, when the parent companies, namely Groupama (who owned Lombard) and Gan in France, were brought together in 1999.
It is listed in the 2007 ICA Global 300 list of mutuals and co-operatives, ranked 6th by 2005 turnover, making it the 2nd largest mutual insurer in the world.[2]
The group's Groupama Insurances United Kingdom division is one of the major insurance companies there, with a head office in London. It has branches in Croydon, Manchester, Portsmouth, Borehamwood, and recently Letchworth, following its acquisition of Clinicare Insurance in 2005. The UK group offers motor, home and health insurance and also provides insurance protection to a growing number of smaller UK businesses. The company employs over 800 staff in 6 centres.
In 2006, the group acquired UK motorcycle insurance broker Carole Nash.[3]
In 2008, Groupama acquired specialist motor insurance broker, ChoiceQuote Insurance Services.
GROUPAMA was caught in a software piracy case of $200m and has made an unofficial affidavit (claiming that it was not guilty) to divert BEFTI investigators from the evidences officially collected one month ago at a different office.[4]
In its affidavit, GROUPAMA argued that bank secrecy entitled it to limit the scope of police investigations to a building that was not the place where evidences about the infraction were officially collected.
After the fraud was discovered and denounced by the victim, as GROUPAMA managed to have the General Prosecutor of Paris to state that Police was 'right' to ignore the criminal file and focus only on the information provided by GROUPAMA itself, there is room for serious doubts in the way that affair was conducted.
As a matter of facts, FINAMA and GROUPAMA have reported false information to the markets regarding their own accounts (where the fraud described below has never been reported).
All the details, including the General Prosecutor reply, the BEFTI investigation file and the unofficial affidavit by GROUPAMA have been made publicly available[4].