Global regulatory changes a key topic at WFII

NIBA President Gary Okely, NIBA Immediate Past President Diane Phelan and NIBA CEO Phil Kewin attended the annual meeting of the World Federation of Insurance Intermediaries (WFII) in Singapore in early March.

WFII is a gathering of insurance broking associations and senior broking members from the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa, North and South America and the Asia Pacific Region.   

The meeting discussed major issues and challenges facing insurance brokers around the world, including the difficult market, insurance for natural disasters, impacts of technological change and the challenge of attracting and retaining sufficient talent.  

Dianne Phelan, NIBA Past President said “It was interesting to see how the regulatory world has changed since June 2022. At the last meeting, we presented to the group on the Quality of Advice review and the introduction of the new Code of Practice”.  

“The importance of continuing a journey of self-regulation by transparency of remuneration and our terms of engagement were a focus and largely dismissed as not relevant. At the time, most other Countries were of the opinion that commissions would never be a topic of discussion, but these same Countries are now faced with suggested regulatory change to introduce a ban on commission”, she added. 

NIBA CEO Phil Kewin was asked to present an update on the status of the Quality of Advice review and NIBA‘s proactive approach to self-regulation, which is now seen as a pointer for other countries facing similar regulatory reform.

WFII also sets the agenda for discussions with industry regulators and met with representatives from the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) which is the international standards setting body of the insurance sector and the OECD which actively examines insurance issues and challenges via its Insurance and Private Pensions Committee.

We are part of the both IAIS and OECD and the Australian regulator, ASIC, like all regulators in developed markets are members of IAIS, so the importance of broking associations coming together is extremely important.  

“It provides the opportunity to be at the forefront of changes that might not be affecting broking in Australia now, but may be part of the strategy for the future”, Phelan added. 

“The use of AI was another focus. It is something we discussed at length during the broker strategy review that the Board completed in 2020. This is an area where successful brokers will be focusing their time – using AI to provide efficiency and knowledge gaps to their people’’, she added. 

NIBA CEO Philip Kewin said that “it is amazing how similar the issues are around the world, from everything to accessibility and affordability of insurance, to bringing new talent into the profession. .ESG is top of mind in Europe, whereas in other markets it is an emerging topic.  The world is shrinking, so it has become not so much an issue of whether or not something occurs in one market versus another, but more so, when so this is a great opportunity to sharinge and collectively benefiting from the various examples.