Post magazine – 22 January 2015

In this issue, organisations representing properties excluded from Flood Re remain committed to fighting for the scheme to widen its scope, despite plans by the British Insurance Brokers' Association to provide a commercial solution for excluded parties.

"We have our 'find a broker' service and we have more than 100 brokers who can help with finding cover for flood risk homes but none of them are in an official Biba scheme and not many of them are focused on commercial businesses," said Biba executive director Graeme Trudgill. "We want to do some more work in that space to see if it is possible to get a flood scheme. Biba has a number of schemes specific members can sub-broke into as a safe-harbour for risks they cannot place in the open market."

Also in the news, market insiders have highlighted the sale of Insure the Box as a wakeup call to the threat manufacturers represent to insurers; Peter Cullum and Andy Homer's hopes of reacquiring Towergate look set to be dashed as the broker seeks to bring an end to a lengthy sale process; and the Association of British Insurers has backed analyst claims that the industry is repudiating roughly two-thirds of industrial deafness claims, despite some firms suggesting rates north of 80%.

Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford’s Toby Esser is in the C-Suite, asking what the future holds for Lloyd’s brokers within the international hub model adopted by Lloyd’s. And the British Insurance Brokers’ Association’s Steve White is our Trade Voice, revealing the trade body’s 10-point plan for smarter, clearer and value for money regulation.

Ahead of the Post Digital Insurance Strategies conference, Rachael Adams talks to RSA’s Ian Hood. Having recently taken on the newly-created role of chief digital officer, he discusses the future for the digital landscape, how the insurance industry is adapting to changes in technology and the explosion in the use of social media. Meanwhile, we look at how insurers can move from a disconnected multichannel approach to a genuinely integrated service.

Finally, we investigate how commerical insurance industry innovation can better keep up with the ever-increasing speed of technological advancement and changing demands from UK businesses.

Enjoy the read!