CRE: Airmic's McGloin calls for insurers and brokers to change model

11 June 2013

The incoming Chair of Airmic, Chris McGloin, is to focus his efforts on trying to persuade insurers and brokers to change their ways.

Mr McGloin said he wants to see the industry do more to remove conflicts of interest, embrace technology to provide more information and an efficient service and provide certainty of claims. In addition to representing the interests of their corporate clients, a great deal of broker activity is focused on the insurance market, where they act as the distributors of insurance products and provide information and claims services to insurance carriers.

Conflicts of interest are of growing concern and brokers need to differentiate more on service, said Mr McGloin. "This is a big challenge for the insurance market. It is difficult to represent customers if you also act in the interest of capacity suppliers", he told Commercial Risk Europe.

Risk managers and associations such as Airmic have also raised concerns over perceived industry intransigence. "Insurers and brokers like the status quo and do not want to take risks and embrace change", said Mr McGloin.

Growing dissatisfaction among insurance buyers over claims certainty is a key area that demands changes to the industry business model, according to Mr McGloin. The changes to Insurance Contract Law proposed by The Law Commission and supported by Airmic may provide an ideal impetus for change, but other issues will need to be addressed by brokers and insurers, he said.

Mr McGloin would also like to see insurers and brokers produce better information on claims settlement, so that risk managers can see what is happening with a claim in a more timely fashion. "More can be done on sharing information, pre-loss risk mapping and learning lessons post-loss", he said.

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