Biba: Insurers and regulators must take more responsibility

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (Biba) has called on insurers and regulators to take more responsibility for their products if they want them sold by non-professional brokers.

Its call came in the wake of the payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal which sees many advisers potentially on the hook for practices they took no part in.

Regulators were also targeted and urged to be far quicker in spotting problems and taking action on major problem areas.

Speaking at the parliamentary reception marking the merger of Biba and the Institute of Insurance Brokers (IIB), Eric Galbraith, chief executive of Biba, noted concerns that government and regulators appeared to regard the insurance sector as part of the financial crisis.

However, Galbraith's key message revolved around the organisation's key aim to restructure the funding model for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

He said that insurers must take more responsibility if they are prepared to have their products sold by non-professionals and that "the regulator must be quicker in future to both spot and take action on issues of wider implications, such as PPI."

Galbraith also called for an end to cross-subsidy, and separation for brokers from those firms whose main business is not insurance intermediation and confirmed that Biba was contributing to the FSCS review.