The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) has today welcomed the recent clarification by George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, where he promised to move cautiously in dismantling the FSA (FT 9 Sep 2009).
Eric Galbraith, BIBA CEO, said: “Following publication of the Conservative White Paper From Crisis to Confidence: Plan For Sound Banking, we responded setting out our high level concerns for the insurance intermediary industry. We were concerned about possible disruption and take some comfort from this explanation”.
Galbraith added: “Our major criticism of the current regulatory regime is that the insurance intermediary sector was shoe-horned into an existing regulatory framework designed for the higher-risk parts of the financial services sector. We are concerned that the Conservatives might simply impose their proposed banking regime upon us.”
Steve White, BIBA’s Head of Compliance and Training, commented: “The insurance intermediary sector is vital; it provides professional advice to businesses and individuals; and plays a key role in the identification, measurement, management, control and transfer of risk. Insurance brokers and intermediaries distribute nearly two-thirds of all UK general insurance and in 2007, UK insurance brokers and intermediaries generated £1.5 billion of invisible earnings”.
White added: “It is essential that any new regulatory regime is appropriate, proportionate and cost efficient. It is also important that UK insurance intermediaries are not competitively disadvantaged compared to their European peers and BIBA will emphasise this point in its ongoing dialogue with the Shadow Treasury team.”
