Airmic CEO urges international action on insurance regulation

Airmic CEO John Hurrell has urged international supervisors to step up efforts to make insurance regulation more consistent and transparent. His call follows research from ACE Group showing that 93% of risk managers worry about whether their global programmes comply with international rules.

“For companies purchasing global insurance policies, the level of complexity, given over 200 countries, is a huge challenge,” Hurrell said. “We need to engage with international regulators to get consistency across regimes.”

Hurrell was speaking at an ACE European risk briefing,which revealed the results of a European-wide survey of risk managers about multinational insurance programmes. The survey pointed to a heightened concern about the growing complexity of international regulation.

“Compliance is a critical issue for our members,” Hurrell agreed. “Staying on top of global regulations is getting more and more difficult. Companies just want to be good local citizens and to comply.

“We need to make it more straightforward for companies to do so. The IAIS (International Association of Insurance Supervisors)is the place to start – they are in a position to create transparency and to work towards a more common platform.”

The ACE findings confirm Airmic member surveys, which have consistently shown global regulation compliance to be a top stay-awake-at-night issue. If anything, the level of concern appears to be on the increase.

In June this year, Airmic and insurance information specialists Axco launched a database to address the concerns risk managers have about complying with local regulations. The database – Insight Risk Manager – provides guidance on the rules covering admitted and non-admitted insurances by jurisdiction in 30 countries covering more than 90% of members' written premium.

Hurrell added: “Our database has had a terrific response and we are working with FERMA and RIMS to give their members access to it.”

John Hurrell - Airmic