Although the numbering has had periods of being pretty erratic so it may not be…

Testing times

FCA has published a major update on its plans to take ambiguous BI wordings through a test cases in the courts to seek to establish certainty on whether claims should be paid.  The update includes:

  1. the list of insurers that have agreed to be part of the initiative, plus the wordings they have used;
  2. the proposed representative sample of wordings that will be tested;
  3. the questions the court will be asked to determine – focussing on what constitutes damage, proximity to premises and cause of the denial of access to offices etc; and
  4. proposed guidance for the process which is out for consultation until Friday.  As you would expect this is mainly aimed at insurers, but does apply to intermediaries that handle claims on behalf of insurers.  The sections on communication are also important for brokers.  Again unsurprisingly this concentrates on ensuring that policyholders know if they are or are not effected by the exercise and keeping them up to date on progress.

The outline timetable (subject to court approval) is:

  1. 9 June – FCA files claim form and particulars
  2. c.11 June – Case management conference, at which the court will be invited to fix the timetable for the case
  3. 23 June – Insurers file Defences
  4. c.26 June – Further case management conference
  5. 3 July – FCA files Reply
  6. First half July – Skeleton arguments and replies served
  7. Second half July – 5 to 10 day court hearing

Ambitious but understandable in the circumstances.

From an initial read of the guidance I think it seems pretty sensible.  But if you do have any points that you would like LIIBA to raise on your behalf, please let me know.

Form an orderly queue

There is no real way to parody the daft decision that MPs who could work from home are being ordered back to Westminster by a government that tells people to work from home if they can.  But this piece does a good job.  Although I think JRM is missing a trick.  As Brexit showed, live Parliamentary voting is a ratings banker when there is no real government and any outcome is possible.  And we need a thriving in-play betting industry to lead the economic recovery.  The election, of course, put an end to the fun by removing the possibility of government defeat.  But the 1km queue can provide the basis for changing all that.  Separate it out into 2 metre social distance squares; invest in some large novelty foam dice – the sort of thing the BBC probably has in a warehouse from an episode of It’s a Knockout from about 1978; dot some snakes (ideally real ones/insert your own “aren’t there loads of them already” gag here) and ladders liberally around the Palace of Westminster; and start every MP from the back of the queue.  Only those that reach the division lobby in time get to vote.  Anything could happen which will woo back the audiences.  And spot betting on the number of 6s thrown by new Conservative MPs from leave constituencies and the like will drive GDP and keep Ray Winstone happy.   I am off to sell the TV rights to Sky.

 

Momentous day on the FCA front.  Besides that, very little happened…