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Brokers hitbyPPI fallout
Barbara Bradshaw
T
he Institute of Insurance Brokers has criticised FSA plans to penalise general insurance brokers with substantial increases in levies and fees directly attributable to the current wave of PPI complaints, a class of business in which very few insurance brokers were ever involved.
In a formal response on 8 March 2010 to the FSA proposals to change the fee structure, IIB chief executive Barbara Bradshaw expresses her concern about the financial impact the change will have on the smaller broker. She also questions “the sheer
complexity of this consultation paper” with some of the more vital information “buried deep in one of five annexes” – in this case, regarding the proposal to charge firms for future financial capability activities (FinCap). “In our view, this aspect of the consultation should have been raised separately to facilitate greater awareness and engagement by regulated firms. The benefits of the initiative to consumers and to the industry have not been widely appreciated and the new levy is likely to be perceived as yet another exercise to swell the coffers of your ever-
burgeoning, unaccountable organisation.
“The IIB has previously
criticised the FSA for appearing to pay only lip-service to consultation respondents who have expended considerable resources in examining the plethora of FSA proposals. The way in which the widely supported arguments against the imposition of the £1,000 minimum fee for GI intermediaries have been summarily dismissed provides no comfort in this regard. The decision is particularly galling since it is acknowledged that such firms present a minuscule risk to regulatory objectives, and they are
already suffering hardship through the economic slowdown. “We are concerned that small general insurance brokers are being squeezed out of the market to the detriment of their customers, the consumers and small businesses who rely on a local service offering independent professional advice.
“Although this may seem like yet another chapter in a long- running saga, it is crucial the broker trade associations and insurance brokers themselves keep up the pressure on the FSA supported by some ‘drum banging’ by the media.”
QBE rowers meet the Challenge
I
t was last July when guests of QBE Insurance braved the occasional summer squall in London Docklands at the launch of ‘The QBE Insurance Challenge’ - the two-man craft due to be rowed across the Atlantic by James Croome and Oliver Back in the Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race.
The start was delayed by adverse weather conditions, but on 4 January 2010 the team set off on this 2,500 nautical mile voyage from La Gomera, Canary Islands and 59 days, 16 hours and 17 minutes later arrived in Nelson’s Dockyard English Harbour in Antigua. James Croome is assistant specie underwriter at QBE Marine & Energy Syndicate 1036 and Oliver Back is a chartered accountant, and they rowed on behalf of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices and The Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Editor’s note: Billed as one of the toughest tests of endurance on Earth, we are told the row was the equivalent of running a marathon a day while battling with sleep deprivation, hunger and often treacherous weather. Which probably explains why this considerable two-man east-to-west Atlantic crossing feat has only been achieved 112 times to date.
18 insurancepeople APRIL 2010
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