UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute Backs OECD Financial Proposals

The UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute (CII Group) has endorsed the call by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for governments and industry to invest more in financial capability for insurance.

The OECD report on improving consumer understanding in insurance outlines specific measures that the industry and other organizations can put into effect make financial capability central to their work.

David Thomson, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the CII, welcomed the proposals: “The UK is well placed on many of the report’s indicators, but we all need to do more to help consumers better understand risks and take appropriate action,” he explained. “As a body with the remit to protect the public by guiding the profession, we will continue to play a strong part in this.”

The CII Group including the Personal Finance Society (PFS), has already put into effect many specific good practices called for in the OECD report. These include:
The industry should provide good selling practices, including mechanisms for assessment of clients’ level of understanding:
— The CII offers training courses for a wide variety of customer-facing roles, all promoting a professional approach to customer treatment;
— The CII requires its members to adhere to a Code of Conduct, and meet annual targets on continuing professional development; and
— The CII has put in place a Professional Standards Board with consumer representation to oversee the Institute’s conduct of the professional body.

The industry should also provide information, advice and training on insurance issues for consumers:
— The PFS Find-an-Adviser website also provides useful independent information on buying insurance products. This is currently being updated and a new improved site and better guides are being launched in the near future;
— The PFS has assisted the UK government in its efforts to develop of a national free basic money guidance service for all consumers. To help assess the feasibility of the concept, PFS financial adviser members have undertaken pro bono pilot work with Citizens Advice, and have helped nearly 1,000 consumers across England and Scotland since 2005.

Source: Chartered Insurance Institute – www.cii.co.uk