In what has been dubbed a “landmark” agreement, the Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries (AMII) has revealed that the PMI industry in the UK will be adopting the electronic transfer of underwriting direct between insurers.
Executive chairman Stuart Scullion (pictured) described it as an “immensely proud moment” while praising the “vision and determination” of those who had made it come together.
“The COVID-19 coronavirus has forced all of us to adopt working practices and processes to meet Government social distancing and self-isolating guidelines,” he said. “It makes no sense for intermediaries to visit their offices to collect membership certificates and underwriting to facilitate policy transfers to another provider when there is a readymade solution at our fingertips.
“I am immensely proud of what we have been able to achieve as an industry in adopting a digital process to exchange personal data and underwriting directly between insurers.
“It’s an agreement which has no doubt been accelerated by the once-in-a-lifetime circumstances created by the coronavirus, and the challenges faced by the PMI industry driven by GDPR and the new Data Protection Act. There have been many challenges to overcome as we sought to agree a process and establish a protocol, and I want to extend my personal thanks to the representatives of all those insurers who have shown the vision and determination which has enabled this to happen.”
The pan-industry arrangement will be implemented from July 01 this year for business transferring between insurers for both SME and corporate schemes. It is set to involve a host of new protocols for both intermediaries and insurers, irrespective of whether they are members of the AMII. The process will see data files, which will have been encrypted, transferred to nominated email addresses securely. With larger insurers, the process is set to be automated.
