UK forwarders win insurance victory

In what is seen as victory for the industry, the UK government has agreed to exclude freight forwarding and its associated activities from its Insurance Mediation Directive. This follows a ruling in 2007 that enabled freight forwarders to extend their open cover policy to commercial customers without the need to register with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in order to provide insurance to their customers. “Those forwarders who offered to sell insurance to so-called retail customers, for example private individuals emigrating and shipping personal effects abroad, were still required to be registered with the FSA,” says Peter Quantrill, director general of the British International Freight Association. “Now the retail customer comes under the exemption like the commercial customer and the cost and administrative burden to our members of these regulations is lifted, which is especially good in these straitened times.” Forwarders must accept certain obligations, including adopting the BIFA Code of Practice and signing up to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).