InView Spring/Summer 2016

4 InView | An independent eye on Insurance
BREXIT POLL PUTS UK
INSURERS ON TENTERHOOKS
The risk of a Brexit from the European Union is causing intense
concern among Insurance industry leaders. Former Solicitor
General Sir Oliver Heald MP QC explains why.
People have asked me what the implications would be for the
Insurance industry if Britain was to leave the EU. In a word my
answer is – bad.
With Britain as an EU member state, insurers can sell their
policies across a 500 million strong single market that includes
28 countries. UK insurers do this using a passporting system
that means in each of these countries they are considered to
have regulatory authority to sell their products.
The prospect of not having access to this enormous market
would represent a huge risk. If we were to leave the EU,
British Insurance firms would have to set up subsidiaries and
branches in all 28 EU countries, rather than simply selling from
the UK as we do now.
There is also a major issue from a consumer point of view.
The same dynamic would happen in reverse, so that UK
consumers who can currently buy their Insurance from
anywhere in the EU would not necessarily be able to do so.
Another implication of a Brexit is that if we were outside the
single market for Insurance we would be competing directly
with other foreign countries, including big emerging powers
such as India and China who are keen to expand in the
European market.
British insurers are seriously concerned about the impact a
Brexit situation might have on their businesses – and they
have every right to be. We would be going from the privileged
position of having direct access to 500 million consumers
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