The insurer has told the ABI that it will cease to be a member of the organisation at the end of 2014. L&G group CEO Nigel Wilson is stepping down from his role on the ABI’s board.
L&G says a large proportion of its business lines fall outside the remit of the ABI and says its engagement with government, regulators and other external bodies will in futre be more individually tailored, and less suited to uniform representation through one trade body.
L&G also says the recent change in the constitution and mandate of the ABI as a result of the transfer of investment business to the IMA was a key factor in its decision to leave the organisation, which it says is as much about investment management as insurance.
In a letter to the ABI, Wilson said: “There is a recognition that even within the insurance sector the ABI often concentrates, for understandable reasons, on the general insurance sector where as you are aware we have only limited business lines.
Additionally, our public policy work increasingly involves sharing commercial aspects of our business with government which, for very obvious reasons not least competition law, we cannot share with competitors. We believe that increasingly engagement with government, regulators, quangos and other external bodies will be on a case by case basis going forward and will have to be more individually tailored to individual company situations as business models of sector participants become more diverse and less suited to uniform representation through one trade body.
ABI director general Otto Thoresen says: “As a trade association, of course we are disappointed by the resignation of a member, however the ABI’s continuing strong membership represents over 90% of the insurance sector. The great advantage of the ABI is that our members work together across the usual corporate boundaries to tackle issues that are important to consumers and to deliver an agenda for reform.
“The Board of the ABI believes the industry is at its most effective when working together to respond to legislative and regulatory change. In the last 12 months ABI members have put forward a practical blueprint to get retirement guidance to every saver, proposed workable civil justice reforms to reduce the cost of insurance for motorists, agreed an innovative model for the future of flood insurance for homeowners and contributed significantly to successfully negotiating and delivering Solvency II in a way that that allows long-term products to be provided to UK pensioners.
“Working with our members we will continue to drive the reform agenda forward to make markets work better for customers on policy areas as diverse as pensions, use of data, welfare policy, tax and regulation to ensure the UK insurance sector continues to contribute positively to the economy and society.”
