ABTA’s head of financial services Mike Monk has criticised the General Insurance Standards Council for seeking to place heavy burdens on agents that sell travel insurance.
Monk singled out the new insurance industry regulatory body’s proposal that all money from insurance sales go into a separate bank account as an administrative nightmare.
“How do you split a credit-card payment for holiday and insurance or what do you do if someone pays by cheque?
“Do you have to pay it into the office account and then pay a separate cheque into the insurance account? It is bizarre.”
The proposal that customers are told the percentage commission made by the agent on the insurance sale doesn’t provide any consumer benefit, added Monk. “How does it benefit the consumer to know that the agent is going to make 30%?” he said.
According to Monk, the GISC annual membership fee will mean some of the largest ABTA members will be paying the maximum amount of £100,000 while even small agencies will have to pay about £700. “That is both excessive and out of proportion,” he said.
The GISC’s proposals on training were also potentially very burdensome to ABTA members if they meant that all staff who sold insurance had to undergo special training.
“Certainly, agencies selling insurance should have people trained to do so, but not every member of staff needs to be trained,” Monk argued.
The GISC was due to begin operation this month but implementation has been postponed while consultation continues.
n See Letters, page 10 and Columnists, page 13