insurancepeople
Late News
Speed up FSCS review, says BIBA
T
he chief executive of BIBA, Eric Galbraith, has called on the FSA to accelerate its fundamental review of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
He says, “I am concerned that recent comments by the FSA have shown that the FSCS issue is not as high a priority for the FSA as it is for us and our members.
“The recent publication of the
FSCS’s interim budget for 2011/12, with a potential further 50% increase in levies for insurance intermediaries, highlights once again the fundamental unfairness in the current funding model. It is imperative that the FSA now pushes forward with its consultation process to ensure that a more equitable model is in place for April 2012.
“The huge increase in FSCS
levies during the last three years for our sector has been caused by the failure of credit brokers, who have mis-sold payment protection insurance. This has nothing to do with insurance brokers and therefore we are demanding that a revised funding model not only removes the current cross-subsidies, but also separates the professional insurance broker from the plethora of ‘secondary sellers’.”
Eric Galbraith
RBS attacked over insurance price ‘madness’ T
hat was the headline that greeted readers of the business section of the Sunday Telegraph on 20 February 2011. It was a response to the recent NIG Price Guarantee press release. That release can be seen on
www.insurancepeople.uk.com (posted 11 February) and appears in print in this issue on page 26). Rivals comment that this “ploy
by RBS to increase revenues” relates to “an expected stock market listing in 2013” and draw attention to implications of price cutting given the long-term tail on commercial liability business.
The Editor writes:
It’s not often that the content of a general business insurance press announcement makes the
PowerPlace business support team
O
nline marketplace PowerPlace has launched a dedicated business support team, to provide brokers with a quick source of help and advice. Based in Warwick, the six- strong team will be able to answer queries about PowerPlace, give advice on best practice, troubleshoot problems, and provide training sessions. They will also provide online demonstrations to brokers who are interested in PowerPlace but not able to set aside time for a visit by a business consultant.
2 insurancepeople MARCH 2011 Sales director Darren Rowe
says, “We’ve launched our business support team to be the first port of call for brokers wanting help, advice and training. We want to make it as easy as possible for brokers to do business with us and clearly want them to get the most out of PowerPlace. Giving them quick access to a knowledgeable team, able to help with any queries, is one way of making sure we can help them maximise their use of our marketplace.”
front page of one of the Sundays. The magnet phrases in this case are, of course, those including ‘bank’, ‘RBS’, ‘state backed’, ‘tax- payer owned’ and ‘stock market listing’.
As for the story, “Here we go again” sums up the fact that this kind of pricing has been going on for years, usually consistent with the hard/soft cycle. The archive
contains numerous case histories where commercial risk renewals have found a new home with an insurer willing to cut the original premium by a considerable percentage for no apparent reason than to secure the risk. Such manipulation was usually carried out clandestinely and on this occasion at least NIG have been transparent.
New venture for Lord Sheikh
Conservative peer Lord Sheikh has announced the launch of an insurance broking and underwriting agency business, Macmillan Sheikh. The company also has a financial adviser arm and will offer a range of commercial and financial insurances, on both a retail and a wholesale basis. Lord Sheikh is chairman.
I Macmillan Sheikh is based in
Westminster and aims to launch a range of specialist schemes in the coming months.
nsurance broker and
Expressing his delight at returning to the insurance scene, Lord Sheikh (previously best known as chief executive of Camberford Law), says, “Recent years have seen a lot of change in the financial and insurance markets, but there will always be a need for specialist knowledge, service excellence and innovative products. With the experience of a great team behind it, that is exactly what Macmillan Sheikh intends to bring to our customers and the market.”
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