Two-thirds of UK insurance brokers believe that the industry's reputation has been damaged during the COVID-19 crisis, a recent survey has uncovered.
These brokers said that the profession has not reacted well to ensure consumers and businesses have the cover needed to navigate the pandemic.
Moreover, nearly all of the brokers polled agreed that all wording in insurance policies needs urgent review as a result of COVID-19.
Significantly more had trouble with wordings from Lloyd's of London and the London Market than other markets, with policies around unoccupied premises a particular point of concern.
FWD Research, which carried out the survey, heard brokers say that the industry was “deadly silent” in the first two weeks of the crisis, and that its needs to be “more proactive” in guiding them in terms of legislation.
This comes after the Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) warned of a “severe shortage” of business interruption insurance in cases of catastrophic risks.
The latest survey found that nearly all brokers believe that business interruption cover is important to their book of business, with this increasingly critical across larger brokerages
Despite various concerns with the industry, the survey also found that commercial brokers have increasingly gained confidence in their companies' future during the COVID-19 crisis.
Only 1% of brokers have had to make redundancies, while a third of brokerages have put staff on furlough.
“However, when it comes to long-term outlook, there were a number of ongoing concerns over the success of some of their customer groups,” said FWD Research senior research director Simon Staplehurst.
“Particularly across some micro and small SMEs and their own jobs, with a quarter of brokers feeling uncertain about job security.
“Business confidence for the long term focused more on business survival rather than anything else, particularly as brokers predict that they could lose nearly a quarter of their new business gross written premium this year.”
Author: Chris Seekings
Image credit: iStock
