Welcome to your latest weekly instalment of developments in the London insurance market. And some interesting stuff. I accept part of this opening statement may well breach the terms of the Trades Description Act. But it was August and not much was happening. And then I went on holiday. So don’t @ me.
Environmental responsibility
As you know, earlier in the year we published a paper – Our Role in Net Zero – which set out the pivotal role we believe the insurance broking sector must play if society is to achieve its climate aims. And at LIIBA we are acutely aware of the fact that we need to play our part. So we have ditched the plastastic water cooler and bought Isabelle BIPAR a collection of bear skins so she will stop cranking the heating up to 35° when no one is looking. And we have overhauled our recycling strategy. I will be honest, until recently, recycling at Casa LIIBA was a bit of a hit and miss affair. It was unclear where we should put any given item and I am not sure any of us really believed the “don’t worry, the cleaners sort it out” schtick. But it pales into insignificance compared with the decision facing this resident of home-of-EU-operational-resilience, Mount Dora, Florida. He needed to ensure the sustainable removal of the large alligator that had occupied his driveway and was threatening to eat his children And so he bravely opted for the recycling bin, trapped said alligator (which, for such a powerful animal, seemed strangely incapable of opening a flimsy plastic lid) and released it humanely/dumped it and legged it whilst retaining the not inexpensive bin for future use. As Eugene Bozzi himself admitted “I don’t know the procedures”. Understandable, Eugene. But I am pretty sure those are not them. After all, don’t alligators go in the green bin?
New releases in film
No time to lie, but the big releases the nation has been waiting for are coming up as follows.
October 13th at 1:30pm we have a webinar on the FCA Fair Value Product Review brought to you in partnership with EY. The fair value review is a monstrous pain that is a heinous example of the lack of appropriate proportionality in the current regulatory approach. But we’ve made that argument and got ignored, so all that is left to us is to try and help manage your pain. So come and hear about the implications and what you need to do.
Later in October (should have been 13th but we bumped it for the one above on grounds of urgency) we have a webinar hosted by us and Lloyd’s US on US Reinsurance. Look out for the invite to this one.
And on October 20th we will have the latest in our series of “LIIBA Snippets” – shorter sessions for those of you who bore easily – on the Lloyd’s Virtual Room. Again, invite out soon.
Genuine update on good diversity and inclusion work that should not be demeaned by a cheesy heading
October half term week will see us host around 60 14-17 year old Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths students for an introduction to our industry. Led by the remarkable Heather Connery at WTW our market team has devised a cyber war game scenario that the students will be taken through with experts from across the membership talking them through how they would react in that scenario. Thank you to all of you who have been involved thus far and have volunteered as mentors and coaches for the event.
This is the first running of what we hope will be an at least annual event to help widen the talent pool from which our market recruits. We are also planning further initiatives with Prince’s Trust and the charity UpReach that will help spread news of our sector to 18-30 year olds and university students. We will be holding a webinar in November to bring you more details on this.
This is part of a wider plan to help our smaller members get involved in these sorts of exercises which you would probably struggle to resource on your own. Not only is increasing diversity and making the market inclusive the right thing to do, it is increasingly the central focus of FCA. So we want to do what we can to help you respond to this challenge. If you would like more detail, would like to become more involved in any of the work or have other ideas on things we can do to help you, please do get in touch. We are open to all suggestions and want to maximise the impact we can have in this important area.
Thrilla in Manilla
The runners and riders are gathering for the Philippines presidential election. And what a collection it is. Current President is Rodrigo Duterte who is constitutionally prevented from running for re-election. So, ten marks off for him because it is de rigeur in such circumstances to seek to change the constitution to allow for another term (cf Carlos Menem, Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega, Lord Levene). Polls seem to indicate that Duterte would be re-elected if it were legal as his hardline anti-drug stance remains popular. So it seems unlikely that he will be replaced by “son of” candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos if his nickname stems from what we all think it does. Duterte is running for Vice President but his ticket mate is at yet undecided. This is despite his daughter being rumoured to be running – which may still happen even if she misses the 8th October deadline for registration as it appears not to be a deadline at all and she can still enter up until November 15th. Bit like the Insurance Day awards.
Elsewhere, former actor and city mayor Francisco Domagoso is running under his screen name Isko Moreno. A bit like Daniel Craig running as James Bond. Although I suspect more like Paul Henry running as Benny from Crossroads. And then there is Manny Pacquaio. And you are not going to want to get into a heated debate with him.
The rest just writes itself.
- “Candidates are expected to perform on stage, with their charisma, singing and dancing skills judged more harshly than their policies”. Like Philippines’ Got Talent. A gift opportunity for Ant n Dec to appear in a country where they will actually be above the average height.
- “It is a circus,” political analyst Tony La Vina said. “People have a sense that in this brief moment, they are the boss, to be wooed by suitors whom they demand sing, dance, act as clowns.”. Like those scenes from Brighton earlier in the week.
- “This election season could be less festive, analysts said – though probably just as deadly as some politicians resort to violence to eliminate rivals despite a gun ban”. As it should be. There are few more powerful demonstrations of democratic will than bumping off your opponent before polling day.
- “Deep pockets – and huge donations – are essential in the country plagued by poverty, corruption and a historic culture of patronage…“The electoral workers can still go door to door buying votes,” a longtime observer of Philippine politics said. “The money just flows like water.””. My kinda town.
It is eyes down for a one off shoot out (no second round) in November. My money is on the still alive one.
Hobberational resilience
She just won’t go away. The latest from Jack the Knife.
Delegated Authority:
- DCOM: We continue to liaise with Lloyd’s about the concerns brokers have expressed. Examples of current issues include the time out of the application being too short, automatic emails sent from the application (both for content and frequency) and concerns over endorsement processes. Our Facilities Committee via the DCOM Sub-Group are liaising with the DA programme team and Lloyd’s to resolve these issues and will keep members updated on developments. If anyone is not already on our Facilities Distribution list and would like to be added, please let us know at enquiries@liiba.co.uk
- DCOM User Group was held last week and we have attached a spreadsheet (called “MUG Feedback Document” which is no way to refer to our loyal members. Shame!) here of questions raised during the session with the responses noted. If anyone would like to sign up for these sessions and receive the documentation from Lloyd’s directly, registration is via the following link: https://communications.lloyds.com/199/3158/landing-pages/rsvp-dcom-market-user-group.asp
- We are also running a survey to garner thoughts on the usability of the system. If you would like to participate you can do so here. Survey will close on 8th October
- We are in dialogue with Lloyd’s and LIMOSS regarding the upcoming changes that will link DCOM and DDM and how this will affect brokers in the run up to the conditions of trade being applied towards the end of next year. We hope to have more information to share on this shortly.
Claims:
- LIIBA will be holding a DA claims forum jointly with the LMA on Tuesday 19th October at 2pm. Invites for the event will be sent through shortly
- The Florida Governor recently signed a Bill including some significant property insurance claim reform, particularly with respect to filing suit but of particular note is once the insured provides written notice of intent to file suit, insurers (including Surplus Lines insurers) have 10 days to respond, including time taken to get to Insurers. If any members would like further information about this, please let us know and we will share detail received from the LMA’s legal counsel.
Mass Errata
Still, if your think Philippines has got it bad, spare a thought for Papua New Guinea. They “invested” in a fleet of Maseratis for the Apec conference they hosted thinking this would be a prestige move that would highlight their prominence in the region. Many attendees refused to use them because of the furore it caused. No one in PNG wants to buy them because they can’t drive them on their roads and there is no one in the country able to service or repair them. And so they are forced to put them up for sale at a 20% discount.
Sorry, this started off as some sort of analysis of government failure but I have just realised. This is the London insurance market and there is a fleet of Maseratis going cheap. So many of you will need their number. I will get on to it.
That is it, I am off to YouTube to find out how I can blow up the ATM outside the One Stop Shop. With hopefully less fatal consequences.