Post magazine – 2 October 2014

In this issue, the future of the general terms of agreement protocol between insurers and credit hire organisations has been questioned by industry bosses after the Competition and Markets Authority’s private motor report failed to propose a remedy for rising credit hire costs.

David Williams, managing director of underwriting at Axa, said: "By exiting the GTA we could immediately get better terms outside it, which supported our point that the GTA wasn’t effective.”

Staying with the CMA report, market observers suggest that potential rate rises emanating from the authority’s decision not to address the cost of credit hire may be offset by the proposed ban on ‘wide’ most‑favoured‑nation clauses between insurers and aggregators.

Also in the news, the Department for Transport is expected to clarify its position on young driver safety by the end of the year, with telematics mooted as its primary focus; analysts suggest that increased pressure from shareholders to produce a faster return on capital and an added focus on core business ahead of the Solvency II directive is behind the raft of international business sales by UK insurers; and UK firms are warned over capitalising on Russian insurers’ exit from Ukraine.

LV’s finance director Steve Castle is in the C-Suite. He argues that unpredictable returns must be a driver for increased motor prices. Meanwhile, the executive director of the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters, Malcolm Hyde, talks about the recommendations on the Riot Act.

Mairi MacDonald meets senior partner at BLM, Mike Brown. He is overseeing his firm through a period of incredible change for the legal sector – although some of the changes don’t sit too comfortably with him.

With the construction industry seeing steady growth over the past 18 months, we look at the traditional risks in the sector that are coming under the spotlight again. Also, in an unprecedented year of aerospace disasters, Mark Sands asks the experts how they expect recent tragedies to impact the aviation sector’s insurance policy renewals. Finally, the incoming Insurance Bill changes the duty of disclosure by an insured to one of fair presentation. We ask what this means for insurers.

Enjoy the read!