Having not long ago attended the British Insurance Awards at the Albert Hall (I was one of the judges – so my apologies to those of you that entered and didn’t win) I found myself on the other, not so pleasant end of the judging process recently.

The BIBA team was entered in the Trade Association Forum, or TAF awards for short, for various membership projects during the last year. The forum has a diverse membership (including industry peers such as the ABI and AIFA) and is designed to encourage the development and sharing of best practice among trade associations.

The BIBA team had done a great job in putting together their entries and were very pleased to be shortlisted for five awards. Last Thursday night was when the awards were made. We approached the evening with trepidation – would we be elated or depressed come Friday morning? It reminded me of the tensions around tendering for new business when I had to undergo this process as a broker.

I know now how entrants feel – the uncertainty, the nerves, the anticipation and finally jubilation. BIBA won what I believe to be the most important award and that was for sector representation – which is what BIBA is all about. It was a great team effort and it was fantastic to have that hard work recognised once in a while, especially by one’s peers. Now back to work – we’ve got a trophy to polish and a display cabinet to find.

Cake or pie? It’s your choice as to how you imagine the insurance market. I’ll go for pie as it suits my more Presbyterian upbringing. The way I see it, we’re heading towards some fairly important changes in the market, sorry the pie. The growth in MGAs, the continuing soft market, insurers dipping into reserves, access to capital, claims levels, consolidation and pressure on commission levels are all pointing towards a challenging time particularly on costs. 

At the moment it’s a debate between insurers and brokers looking at how the pie is divided, i.e. the cost of providing insurance. The battle is over who gets what part of the pie and increasingly who gets the bigger piece. Added to that is the Financial Services Authority’s apparent belief that more transparency in the intermediary sector will bring greater competition and therefore result in cheaper prices for the client (something which I believe is misconceived). Pressure is coming to a head or as one speaker at a recent industry forum put it: “We’re reaching the end of the runway.”

The debate as to whether MGAs are the future and capital as a commodity is forcing the industry to look more widely and externally at how all the costs and expenses, not just of distribution, can be reduced.

We should all be focused on a strong but competitive market and the right regulation, but we should not forget the client in all of this. This internal market debate does seem to be too focused on the cost of distribution, on how we process, package and deliver that pie to the client if you will. We’ve got to provide service and maintain focus on value all the while improving its taste to the client – no-one wants all crust and no filling after all.

Perhaps it will all become academic when the market hardens and many of these issues are promptly shelved. Whichever way it goes, it will as usual be up to the broker community to ensure that client service in all areas is maintained – and that as we all know is not as easy as pie.

I have decided to have a blog holiday next week as I am set to become as old as the NHS – not a happy thought!

There’s certainly a lot going on around age, discrimination and equality these days, particularly with the publication of the European Commission’s proposals yesterday for a directive aimed at tackling those very issues.  It will be interesting to see how the Commission’s proposed concessions for the insurance industry work out in practice and whether they will have an adverse impact on the availability and affordability of cover. You can expect the industry to be pretty vocal on this. I may even have to declare a conflict of interest after my birthday next week!

Talking about conflicts, I wonder what shape the FSA will be in when it is as old as the NHS – that’s not a happy thought either!  While we’re on the subject of the FSA, one of the issues that some members have raised again is the overall cost of regulation (perhaps fuelled by the regulator’s annual report and Clive Briault’s leaving payment) so I am going to put that back on BIBA’s agenda.

 Anyway, that’s enough about regulation and about me.  Every day above ground is a bonus so I am going to enjoy that bonus – God willing!