So that is the rona over with, we can all get back to normal. Unless those pesky Danish minks have their way…
Pennstill vain refusal to believe
Another week on and still no conclusion to the US Presidential election. I mean I am not saying we don’t know who has won, it is just that the reality is yet to dawn on the loser – whose Twitter feed which was always hilarious has surpassed itself in the last week. And every day in every way he just makes his inevitable concession that much more painful. If he ever does concede rather than just ****** off to Mar a Lago and leave Pence to clear up the mess.
It is worth running the numbers just to show how desperate the President’s plight is. On the one hand he is relying on recounts in the disputed states. Good luck with that. The average change in voting totals in all recounts since 2000 is 430 votes. The largest overturn is 2,600 votes. Trump currently trails Biden by 11, 500 votes in Arizona, 14,000 in Georgia, 20,000 in Wisconsin, 53,000 in Pennsylvania (the one he really needs to flip) and 148,000 in Michigan. So not much hope here.
Which means he would have to prove some form of voter fraud. And here some good news. His friend at Fox, Tucker Carlson, has found evidence of dead people who voted in the election. But seemingly only five of them and even then he is not sure how they voted. To be fair, there aren’t going to be 60,000 dead Pennsylvanians who have voted for Uncle Joe because he did not run on a platform of the retrospective reimbursement of funeral expenses; an expansion of federal cryogenics programmes to include the already mouldy; and Adams family values. So this avenue would also seem, er, dead.
So what is he up to? There is a school of thought that Republicans will only prevail in the crucial run offs in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate if Trump is still around to motivate his base (and it is not to be forgotten that he has just won more votes in a Presidential election than any other candidate ever bar one). But there is an equal school of thought that Republicans will only prevail in the crucial run offs in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate if Trump has exited stage right and is not still about acting the goat. So, who knows? But narcissists don’t take failure easy so I wouldn’t expect a resolution any time soon – unless CIA decide to eliminate the problem (which they are not actually very good at – cf Castro and exploding cigar incidents passim).
Straight outta Stratford
A couple of morsels from our friends at FCA. Firstly you hopefully saw the invite we sent you to a Brexit webinar FCA is holding from 10:00 -11:30 on 18 November.
Nausicaa Delfas Executive Director of International, will be joined by Zertasha Malik, Head of International, and Greg Sachrajda, Head of International Delivery. During the webinar they will highlight key information to help firms with their preparations. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.
Please follow this link to register for the live webinar as only a short summary of key information will be made available after the event.
Secondly to point your attention at the fact that new FCA Chief Executive, Nikhil Rathi, is addressing regulators at Mansion House this evening. And, bizarrely, this seems to be going to be an actual event. Bit odd in the current circumstances, but each to their own.
Anyway, I have seen a copy of the speech, but it is embargoed until 17:45 so I am not allowed to tell you what is in it. But I believe I may be allowed to tell you what is not in it – and that is the word “insurance”. Which what with all the faffing about over BI claims and the test cases is probably, on balance, a good thing.
Found in translation
Last week’s publication by Lloyd’s of Blueprint 2 triggered the usual set of vanilla press reports variously including trite drafted comments from market luminaries and me. But none of them really shed any light on what it is that Lloyd’s is up to. None of them that is except the French publication FM Conseils. Because when you take source material in English, write your article in French and then use a bot to translate it back into English, the results are truly revelatory. So now we know the following.
- “Historically working on a face-to-face foundation, Lloyd’s brokers and insurers needed to shortly shift to a distant mannequin as a result of government-imposed lockdowns”. Good to know. I had worried that the large proportion of members’ subscriptions I had invested in a mannequin in Ulan Bator would turn out to be a waste of money.
- Bruce Carnegie-Brown helpfully confirms that: “The pandemic has…elevated our starvation to get on and make additional change occur”. #prayforbruce
- “A brand new market gateway and fast processing functionality can even be carried out for quicker issuance of canopy”. Surely “canapé” would be a better bet if they want to see widespread market adoption?
- And some idiot called Christopher Croft from London & Worldwide Insurance coverage Brokers Affiliation said ”That is an bold set of proposals that might ship a big discount in the associated fee base…[and]…solely reinforce why dangers ought to come to London”
So that is all suddenly much clearer. Merci beaucoup.
Leffe it be
To return to one of our favourite topics – the thorny question of professional qualifications in Belgium. I am in conversation with a Brussels based training firm that has translated the new exam syllabus into English and can provide training for that and on an ongoing basis for cpd etc. Once I have had that discussion I will be in touch with all of you that have Belgian operations to see if there is something you might be interested in here. So if you never responded to our survey a while back asking where you had set up and are set up in Belgium, tell me now or I will miss you out.
LIIB em wanting more
Many of you will have attended the excellent seminar run for us by Morgan Lewis (founders Captain Morgan and Lewis out of Lewis & Clarke) yesterday. This covered the FCA BI test cases; FCA pricing review and things to do to prepare for Brexit. Slides and the video of the session are available now on our website.
Tuesday 8th December we have another seminar on data protection and privacy challenges – invitation to that attached.
Morgan Lewis has also published some useful guidance on the extended furlough scheme that may be of interest to you.
And in doesn’t really fit here but isn’t strong enough for its own section news, latest PPL stats show 178 broking firms signed up to the platform binding 14,000 risks in October – 144% of last years number. Which means PPL is the only thing producing growth figures that rival Joe Biden’s polling.
Double bubble
The misery of lockdown cannot be over estimated but one beacon of light does remain this time that we did not have back in March. And that beacon comes from the towering golden arches whose illumination spreads the joyous news that McDonalds is still open. And it was amongst the wise men to publish its Christmas menu this week. And what is this heavenly offering? A DOUBLE BIG MAC!!! Imagine it! Like a Big Mac only double. It makes all that has gone before it in 2020 suddenly worth it twice over. Now we have FOUR all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese pickle and onion to chant about. A true moment of epiphany.
Elsewhere, jerk chicken sandwich – sounds promising. Pigs in blanket sub – not sure I could go foot long. And gravy burger box meal – just no.
I am off to take danger to my distant mannequin.
LIIBA Virtual Seminar – Data Protection Privacy Challenges for Insurance Brokers