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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
European regulations for insurance intermediaries would have a negative impact on most risk managers in the United Kingdom if the country's financial regulator were to apply the rules to risk managers, according to a poll.
In the poll, conducted at the Assn. of Insurance & Risk Managers' annual conference in Manchester, England, 88% of respondents said that the E.U. Insurance Mediation Directive, which is due to take effect Jan. 14, 2005, would affect their jobs either "negatively" or "very negatively" if it were applied to risk managers.
And 6% of the 106 respondents to the poll said that there was a "strong possibility" that the risk management function at their organizations would be moved to other countries if risk managers were to have to comply.
The directive, which is designed to harmonize the oversight of insurance intermediaries throughout Europe, will require all insurance intermediaries to be licensed by regulatory authorities.
In the United Kingdom, though, risk managers fear that the Financial Services Authority may determine that risk managers, who arrange insurance for corporate affiliates, are acting as intermediaries and should be licensed under the directive (BI, May 10).