Legal & General resigns from ABI

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said it is disappointed by the resignation of Legal & General (L&G) from the trade association.

L&G, which will leave at the end of 2014, said that its business has evolved over time, and now a large proportion of its business lines fall outside the remit of the ABI.

“In the future we believe engagement with government, regulators and other external bodies will be more individually tailored, and less suited to uniform representation through one trade body.

“We believe the ABI plays an important role in public policy formulation for the sector, and in promoting best practice and codes of conduct across the sector. Going forward we would like to work with the ABI on these important issues,” said L&G in a statement.

In reply, Otto Thoresen, the director general of ABI, expressed disappointment at the resignation but added that ABI’s membership represents over 90 percent of the insurance sector.

Thoresen said: “The great advantage of the ABI is that our members work together across the usual corporate boundaries to tackle issues that are important to consumers and to deliver an agenda for reform.

“The board of the ABI believes the industry is at its most effective when working together to respond to legislative and regulatory change. In the last 12 months ABI members have put forward a practical blueprint to get retirement guidance to every saver, proposed workable civil justice reforms to reduce the cost of insurance for motorists, agreed an innovative model for the future of flood insurance for homeowners and contributed significantly to successfully negotiating and delivering Solvency II in a way that that allows long-term products to be provided to UK pensioners.

"Working with our members we will continue to drive the reform agenda forward to make markets work better for customers on policy areas as diverse as pensions, use of data, welfare policy, tax and regulation to ensure the UK insurance sector continues to contribute positively to the economy and society."