SWISS Reinsurance, the world's second largest insurer, this week released its analysis of claims for 1996. Among the details of global catastrophes which left 22,000 people dead and caused damages worth $50 billion (£31.7 billion), the Margin found one interesting, if less dire, entry.

A major fire at Credit Lyonnais's headquarters in Paris in May was apparently the sixth mostly costly insured disaster for the company in 1996, with a tab of $404 million.

Woodchester, of which Credit Lyonnais still owns 53 per cent, will, it seems, be well shot of its accident-prone stakeholder which can now add the insurance industry to the banking sector, French politicians and EU bureaucrats who all view it as a disaster.