Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules requiring brokers to assess the value other intermediaries in the chain bring can apply equally to international partners as they do domestic ones.
This is according to compliance consultant Branko Bjelobaba, who was speaking at the Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries (AMII) annual general meeting this week.
During his address, Bjelobaba pointed out that the FCA’s product governance rules mean brokers working with other intermediaries need to ask themselves a number of questions.
“If you’re working with other brokers and intermediaries – what do they do?” he asked.
“What do they get paid for it? Is that fair? And does any of this add value to the end customer?”
Bjelobaba told Health & Protection this was because insurers have to sign off on the fair value unless the broker is also a co-manufacturer of the product when they too will have a role in signing this off.
But he added these rules also apply to people sent on international assignments covered by international private medical insurance (IPMI) where the person has been placed through a British intermediary who has been working with an international intermediary in the process.
“If you’re going to work with anyone else in the distribution chain and you’re going to pay them, ensure what value they are going to add to the end customer and whether the payment for their services is indeed commensurate with the services and the value that they provide,” he added.
