But CRE’s annual Risk Frontiers survey of leading European risk and insurance managers, sponsored by XL and published this week found wide support for the an industry-wide effort and suggests that the insurers ought to tread carefully if they plan to dodge or smother the effort.

Before the insurers try anything too aggressive, however, they ought to listen to their leading customers who, based on the evidence gathered among 70 leading European risk managers for the Risk Frontiers report, genuinely back the industry-wide effort, if often more with hope than expectation.

Edwin Meyer, General Manager, Risk and Insurance Management, at Steel giant ArcelorMittal, said that he expects the insurers to deliver a top notch service. “I am very adamant that yes, my programmes should be compliant. I am not being paid for not being compliant. That implies that we should have made every effort to be compliant and if that requires extra effort and money then so be it. There is no reason not to be compliant. That is the correct answer. But the reality is that nobody can really say that because there are still various countries where being compliant is increasingly difficult. I never take no for an answer for not being compliant for our D&O policy,” he said.

Otto Bekouw, Senior Director Insurance at Royal Philips Electronics in the Netherlands fully backs the industry effort and urged insurers not to dodge it on the basis of competitive advantage and also said the regulators should become involved.

“My view is that everyone should share the information between all market players and do not keep the information for competitive advantage because it must not be a competitive advantage. The whole market accepts that programmes should be compliant and so why not work together to achieve that? If we can create a standard that is acceptable to all regulators and tax authorities then we can spend time selecting who provides best terms and service rather than having endless discussions about whether you can issue a policy in this or that country and how to pay the taxes. All the leading insurers have different solutions even though this is essentially the same problem. Why not all agree on a global standard?” said Mr Bekouw.

Johnny Merlot, Insurance Director at France Telecom in Paris, is also a fan of the effort and agrees that the regulators cannot stand back and not become involved. He said: “I agree that an industry-wide effort to tackle some of the difficulties with global programmes would be very useful. The regulators should take some responsibility as should the insurers and brokers and risk managers. It should be a team effort.”

Nicholas Bailey, Group Risk Manager at BBA Aviation, is another supporter but voiced the common held concern that it is not that easy and will take a big effort from all parties. “From a market point of view it makes a great deal of sense to gather all the intellectual power and knowledge and all share best practices for the benefit of everyone and it is obvious that the regulators should be involved but there have been huge problems in trying to get all to buy in. The question is what is possible and what can be achieved,” said Mr Bailey.

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