Just a couple of years after being created to capture a slice of the NZ broker market, IAG subsidiary Circle is heading into a quiet retirement. IAG NZ CEO David Smith created the company after the Sydney-based insurer took over direct market specialist State Insurance. But last year’s CGU/IAG acquisition changed all that.

Now Circle is being incorporated into the long-established NZI brand. Spokesman Shaun Hickey says IAG found itself with twice the broker-targeted insurance companies it needed. He told Sunrise Exchange News that most brokers are “very comfortable at the prospect of changing over to the well-established NZI brand”.

IAG has no plans to sell the company. Its name will vanish, but some of its innovations will find their way into NZI practices. “Circle staff are already moving over to NZI,” Mr Hickey said. Circle had some very innovative ideas and practices that “we plan to incorporate over time”, he said.