International Trade

The About-Turn Policy

February 2007
Phil Hastings, International Trade Today

Forwarders operating in the UK should soon be able to resume offering shippers all-risk marine insurance of goods in transit on the same basis as their counterparts elsewhere in Europe and many other parts of the world.

That, at least, is the hope of the country’s forwarding industry following a government decision to remove its two-year-old requirement for companies in that sector to be registered with the national Financial Services Authority (FSA) if they want to provide such insurance.

Prior to that legislation, UK forwarders were free to purchase policies for all-risk marine insurance of goods in transit and then effectively pass on that cover to their customers as a service. Subsequently, UK forwarders had to be FSA-registered in order to offer that option.

Now, says the British International Freight Association (BIFA), the trade body for UK forwarders that has led a four-year industry campaign against the present regulation, it appears that the legislative processes required to abolish that more recent requirement could be completed during the first half of this year.

‘However, this does not mean that members can rush out and purchase marine insurance policies,’ warned BIFA director general Colin Beaumont. ‘We recognise that there are a number of steps that have to be taken before this becomes law.’

The issue originally arose from a piece of EU legislation called the Insurance Mediation Directive (IMD), which required member states, including the UK, to regulate various activities associated with the selling and administering of insurance contracts, including long-term insurance business, commercial insurance and reinsurance.

The IMD was implemented in the UK at the beginning of 2005 by giving the FSA responsibility for regulating the sale of general insurance products in addition to its existing regulatory... continued on page two >

 

 

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