Joining the IUA

 

There are currently three categories of membership available within the IUA:

 

Ordinary – denotes full membership status with voting rights and an active involvement in the governance and operation of the association.  Ordinary membership is open to international and wholesale insurance and reinsurance companies that hold a license from their domiciliary regulator to transact such business.  In practice, most Ordinary members tend to operate in or through London.

 

Associate – open to insurance and reinsurance companies outside of London.  Associate members may attend the association’s annual general meeting, but have no voting rights.  They receive a basic publication service.

 

Affiliate – introduced in January 2003 to cater for London market organisations who are either in run-off or who provide professional services to the association’s Ordinary members.  Affiliate membership confers no voting rights but offers the benefit of the IUA’s information services.   Affiliate members may also, where appropriate, take part in the IUA’s committee activity.

 

 

Benefits of Membership

 

Influencing and benefiting from market reform
The IUA has been involved with market reform since its inception; consulting, informing members and ensuring that the company market perspective is taken into account at all times. Members are given every opportunity to participate in the design and implementation work for Accounting & Settlement, Electronic Claims and Electronic Placing and are able to share experiences with other members through focused networking groups.
 

Operational support for companies
IUA members can benefit from services including market statistics, compliance guidance, underwriting, claims and other practitioner committees (including Joint IUA/LMA committees), recommendation of good practice, and various publications (e.g. model wordings) to assist practitioners.  Meeting with co-insurers under an association umbrella provides a safer environment compatible with competition law for joint discussion of issues.
 
Joint ownership of Ins-sure
The IUA has an opportunity to influence the governance of Ins-sure through 25% ownership and a shareholders’ veto. The IUA Service Review Panel monitors Ins-sure core services for price, quality and range, and the IUA has policy involvement in infrastructure issues (e.g. repository, accounting and settlement) with Ins-sure on behalf of members. Dividends and other proceeds arising from the 25% IUA ownership of Ins-sure are passed on to all companies holding an Ordinary membership at a prescribed date agreed by the Board.
 
Supporting a single voice for companies in the London market
The IUA is a respected voice in its representation of members’ interests to regulators and legislators in the UK and internationally, including the FSA, EU and USA; also with other industry bodies, e.g. Lloyd’s, LIIBA, ACORD, IMO. IUA’s views are sought very early in any major consultation exercise, recognised by opinion formers as a voice to be heard. We aim to fully understand the issues that matter most to our members.

 

Emphasis on market-facing Activities
IUA has a predominant emphasis on being seen as a market association.  Our international lobbying work is still important but must satisfy a “relevancy” test, ie. be undertaken only when our voice will be heard and it directly affects the underwriting business of members.
 
Information and research
IUA members benefit from regular newsletters, market briefings, research projects (e.g. bodily injury studies, emerging risks), alerts to market developments/issues through circulars, opportunities to network, news digests and promotion of education and training. Our aim is to provide networks and other flows of information through which ideas and best practice can be shared among companies of every shape and size.

 

IUA Website
Each individual working for IUA member companies is able to register and view the members only sections of the IUA website. The website offers full access to all communications and research published by the association.

 

To enquire about joining the IUA email Dave Matcham or telephone +44 (0)20 7617 4444