The recent announcement by the Economic Secretary to the UK Treasury that freight forwarders are to be removed from the scope of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) insurance regulation has been welcomed by Davies Turner.Once this secondary legislation has been passed, UK freight forwarders will once again have the option to sell marine cargo insurance to their customers, without needing to be authorised and regulated by the FSA.Davies Turner's joint managing director, Philip Stephenson, commented: “Anyone in the international trading environment who has followed the issue will know that individual companies and trade or freight associations have lobbied long and hard to amend or simplify the implementation of the Insurance Mediation Directive.”Stephenson said that, from the outset, Davies Turner believed that additional regulation was unnecessary as there weren't any significant consumer protection issues, and the industry should compete on a level playing field along with the rest of Europe.Davies Turner was one of the first UK freight forwarders to register with the FSA before the new Insurance Mediation Directive took effect in January last year, and has therefore been able to continue providing marine insurance cover for its customers.However, Stephenson pointed out that the FSA registration process was not a simple one, and significant costs have been involved, both in support of registration and its continued maintenance, including staff training.
So we welcome the news that later this year there will be a short consultation paper on the change, along with draft secondary legislation that we hope will become law as soon as possible,” he said.