With the industry clamouring for certainty and continuity as we near the UK’s departure from the European Union, the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) has put in place an arrangement to assist members.
“In our survey of members last year we asked what concerns they had about the UK’s impending exit from the EU,” noted BIBA executive director Graeme Trudgill. “One of the most common and worrying was the issue around continuing to help EU clients with renewals, claims handling, and placement post-Brexit.
“As soon as we had the results of the survey we began looking for a solution, and working with WBN (Worldwide Broker Network) is the obvious choice.”
The two groups have reached an agreement aimed at facilitating the introduction of BIBA member firms to one of WBN’s members in an EU state. WBN, which generates over $5 billion in property & casualty and employee benefits revenue annually, has at least one member operating in each EU country.
“We were delighted to work with BIBA on this matter,” commented Alec Finch, a founder and board member of WBN. “We are still unaware of what provisions may be in place for cross-border trading, and this arrangement makes perfect sense for UK-based brokers.
“Importantly once the introduction is made the two broking firms will have complete control of their relationship and terms of business, which means they can agree a collaboration that fits the clients’ needs.”
According to BIBA, over 2,750 UK insurance brokers possessed passports to trade in the EU while more than 5,720 EU intermediaries held permissions to passport into the UK as of August 2016.
“This important agreement will provide some certainty and continuity to BIBA members and their EU clients in the absence of a trade agreement providing access to the single market,” said BIBA chief executive Steve White. “It’s an example of great synergy between two organisations responding to BIBA member concerns.”
