It appears that insurers, certainly the big players in the global programme market, were quick to ensure that they had operations in each camp and were able to make arrangements to ensure multinational customers weren’t unduly affected.
For UK and European companies, Brexit was a huge
issue, beset with uncertainty and confusion, particularly at the political
level. But then along came the pandemic, which easily topped Brexit for
uncertainty and confusion. Brexit is done, apparently, but there are still many
issues to be dealt with, not least in the financial services sector.
So is Brexit still an issue for UK and European
companies when it comes to their insurance programmes, or has this issue
largely been resolved? It appears that insurers, certainly the big players in
the global programme market, were quick to ensure that they had operations in
each camp and were able to make arrangements to ensure multinational customers
weren’t unduly affected. Words like seamless, continuity, integrated and
transparent were liberally used by insurers to reassure customers that all
would be well.
And by and large it seems to have worked. Brokers and
others report that insurers have ensured a smooth transition. As Daniel
Trautner, head of Aon Global, commercial risk solutions, health solutions and
affinity, explained: “At this moment in time, the industry has reacted well and
Brexit has been managed well on both sides of the English Channel. However,
regulations will almost certainly change and this means that there can be no
complacency and firms will need to ensure that they manage any current and
future cross-border regulatory issues in the best way they can to provide
protection and assurance for their clients.
Karen Jenner, portfolio director, business
development, TMF Group noted that the insurance market has been preparing for
this for some time, with insurers setting up branches to deal with the
regulatory changes and facilitate cross-border insurance most effectively
post-Brexit. “From an IPT perspective, the UK leaving the EU causes less issues
for European insurers writing into the UK than for those UK insurers without
European subsidiaries to facilitate [Freedom of Services] policies,” she said.
Some other minor areas may cause concern, according to
Jonathan Drake, partner, regulatory, compliance and investigations, DWF Law.
“Brexit continues to highlight some particular specific cross-border insurance
issues but these are largely technical ones and my sense is that Brexit has
largely been resolved from the perspective of cross-border insurance
programmes. However the ongoing dialogue over the future of UK/EU financial
services generally may give rise to further issues,” he said.
And Monica Karmasin, senior client development manager
at Axco, pointed out that passporting rights and Freedom of Services (FoS)
policies aren’t the only important considerations when building multinational
programmes. “We have become accustomed to considering the implications of
transferring – or processing – personal data on a cross-border basis, and
ensuring compliance with the EU GDPR post-Brexit,” she said.
Insurers response
As for insurers, the vast majority began planning for
this long before the politicians came to any sort of decisions. “Most insurance
companies and clients have established or, like AIG, already executed a plan to
ensure a smooth transition post-Brexit,” said Karen Jury, UK head of
multinational, AIG. “The most recent challenges faced by clients deal with
using their European captive to write directly into the UK, as they would have
to apply for a specific licence post-Brexit, with capital and other
requirements. The alternative is to use a fronting partner in the UK.”...
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