White paper: International programme compliance

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Businesses today face many challenges managing their cross-border risks – not knowing if insurance programmes are compliant globally shouldn’t be one of them. Keeping up to date with changing requirements across jurisdictions or even knowing what questions to ask your broker can be daunting. Inadvertent breach of these laws or regulations may only be identified on disclosure of the insurance contract to regulators or during litigation. The breach might render the insurance contract unenforceable, exposing the buyer to an unexpected, uninsured loss, as well as the possibility of fiscal or penal sanctions.

Being aware of these requirements has never been more important as Britain draws ever nearer to its official departure from the European Union. ‘Brexit’ will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the UK insurance market and appropriate legislation will need to be introduced to separate the UK from EU laws, directives and other regulations. 

Brexit ramifications will potentially be disruptive for the risk management community. Without passporting, straightforward insurance programmes placed from the UK across the EU could involve increased compliance and administrative complications.  

To mitigate potential risks, shared standards in regulation are almost certain to be maintained in the agreed transition period and within the industry, UK brokers have cemented relationships with EU counterparts and insurers have opened European offices to smooth the transition for clients with EU exposures. However, it remains to be seen how many of these players will be able to navigate this new frontier whilst servicing their clients and addressing the complexities of cross-border regulatory compliance. 

Risk managers must be proactive when addressing their international programme compliance. This paper presents a checklist of questions that they must ask themselves, the insurer or the broker to gain assurance on their compliance concerns and responsibilities.

A checklist for compliance

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Insight risk manager - user guide

Airmic members can register for the tool here: airmic.com/axco

Select one or more countries from a database of 100 of the most relevant territories – the countries that account for more than 90% of all placed insurance premium. 

Select the information you need to confirm.

Generate your report. 

The resultant information can be viewed either by topic

or by country

The information can be easily exported to Excel, particularly useful for a multiple country policy or the preparation of reports.