Legislation reforming personal injury claims and Brexit will dominate the British Insurance Brokers’ Association’s (BIBA) work over the course of the rest of this year, attendees of its 2018 conference heard last week.
The BIBA 2018 conference in Manchester, which saw 213 exhibitors and 7,500 attendees gather for the two-day event, opened with a welcome address from chairman Lord David Hunt.
He highlighted five pieces of legislation of particular importance to BIBA and its members, including the Civil Liability Bill and whiplash reform.
“Clamping down on bogus claims is good for society as a whole,” Lord Hunt said, adding that reform of how the personal injury discount rate is set will also steady the ship.
Lord Hunt turned his attention to Brexit and the challenges it presents for the UK insurance industry.
The withdrawal bill, currently making its way through Parliament but facing a number of amendments, is very important to the insurance industry, he told BIBA 2018 attendees.
Some 38 million EU citizens buy insurance from the UK, Lord Hunt said, and “no-one wants to lose that”. Mutual recognition of regulation is important to maintaining that market, he explained.
Of the difficulties surrounding the withdraw bill and negotiations with the EU, Lord Hunt said: “Good old-fashioned British pragmatism will win the day.”
Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, explained in his keynote speech to the BIBA 2018 conference that of paramount importance to insurance and financial services as a whole is the mitigation of so-called ‘cliff-edge risks’.
He said: “These arise in large part if there is a sudden and disorderly falling away of the passporting system without having an effective plan to bridge to the future. The passporting system goes both ways, from the UK to the EU, and from the EU to the UK, so both sides have a strong interest in orderly transition.”
“The risks of not getting this right are considerable, because without passporting the authorisations of those firms that rely on it fall away in the market into which they passport, unless some other action is taken. This matters because the authorisation provides the legal basis to continue to servi