Zurich opens global programme database as rivals frosty on industry effort

One of the big underlying messages from most insurers during the recent Ferma Forum in Stockholm was that they may not be ready to welcome efforts by Ferma, Airmic and the London International Insurance Brokers Association (LIIBA) to seek a standard approach to multinational insurance business with open arms.

It seems that most of the leading insurers believe that they have invested too much to gain a competitive edge in this valuable area already and will therefore find it difficult to back a market effort to deliver customers with more clarity and certainty with their global programmes.

But, while a true market-wide collaborative effort may be some way off, if at all possible, the pressure applied by the risk and insurance managers at events such as Commercial Risk Europe’s Global Programmes seminar in London in March, the recent Ferma Forum and market meetings hosted by Airmic in recent months may be having a positive effect in some quarters.

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Zurich, for example, revealed last week that it has decided to offer corporate insurance brokers access to its Multinational Insurance Application (MIA), a database that contains information on compliance and premium taxation requirements in over 180 jurisdictions and which in some respects kicked off the debate on global programmes in earnest when originally launched in 2006.

The data is not freely available for customers but Zurich did not rule out the prospect.

“Zurich are actively involved in the discussion currently being undertaken around creating a market solution and are fully supportive,” the insurer confirmed to CRE in a statement yesterday.

“Although business is increasingly conducted on a large global scale, insurance regulatory laws tend to be complex. This presents significant challenges to multinational organisations looking to establish international insurance programmes—challenges that we are helping brokers to meet with MIA for brokers. Zurich’s MIA is a system that will help to create transparency around this topic and as such we feel that we can support the market now,” continued the insurer.

“Zurich has many years of experience in collecting and understanding information on this complex topic and we want to ensure this knowledge is shared throughout the insurance industry so we can contribute to a global standard,” added Zurich.

The insurer said that recent cases in Argentina and Switzerland have highlighted the risks of conducting multinational business without understanding the complex situation that may exist in a territory. It pointed out that it has made a ‘multi-million dollar investment’ in this application since launch to ensure that it understands the issues and can create solutions that are ‘appropriate’ and satisfy customer, broker and regulatory requirements.

Zurich added that this includes a global legal network which comprises 122 independent external law firms and 50 Zurich internal lawyers. “The application is constantly updated and the database is fully traceable, giving peace of mind to customers,” it said.

Up till now the MIA information has been available to Zurich staff to help them structure international accounts. The insurer said that ‘on some occasions, and upon request’, the output from the system has been made available to customers.

Zurich told CRE that it has formally decided to open up the system to brokers for a ‘nominal’ charge to cover administration costs.

“Zurich is committed to supporting the market and has made significant investments into the creation of this external solution. There is a nominal administration fee to gain access to the system to help us cover our costs for the development of the external version of MIA as, after all, Zurich is in the business of selling insurance and not in the business of selling data,” it stated.

As a result, the insurer said that brokers are now able to offer their commercial customers ‘comprehensive’ information related to so-called ‘non-admitted’ cross-border insurance policies that was previously not available to them.

Zurich said that it has decided to share its knowledge to ‘further simplify’ international programme business for customers and brokers.

It said that it had done this in response to a ‘commonly expressed’ request for greater clarity in cross-border business. 

Zurich claims that ‘MIA for brokers’ is the first online insurance market database to offer commercial insurance brokers relevant information in one place and is not only designed for specific business scenarios, but also for 41 insurance sectors. “Consequently, the MIA contains a comprehensive overview of the regulatory and taxation requirements applicable to international insurance activities,” it explained.



“The MIA facilitates a flexible approach thanks to a combination of predefined business scenarios with numerous permutations. This means that customers looking to cover foreign risks can obtain answers to various questions and resolve all manner of issues. Brokers are kept well-informed with the latest information on trends and requirements pertaining to non-admitted business thanks to regular updating of the system,” explained the company.

The insurer was not keen to commit to whether it would open up the system to risk and insurance managers in future, possibly to form the core of the database envisaged by Ferma, Airmic and LIIBA.

“We believe that in its current format the information contained within MIA is best suited to support the broker community. There have been no decisions made at this point of time in terms of creating a solution for customers although this is a topic under discussion following positive feedback from some of our customers. Any decision that will be made will be taken with the input advice of our customers and the risk management associations,” it told CRE.

Zurich has also launched a web-based literature application called the Virtual Literature Rack (VLR) that it says provides corporate business insurance buyers, brokers and the broader marketplace with ‘easy access’ to information about ways they can help their businesses.



The VLR contains information, risk insights, industry insights and research papers that it says can help users understand and manage the risks that major businesses face today as well as Zurich Global Corporate product information brochures and fact sheets. Zurich said that a wide range of areas are covered by the VLR, including captives, emergent and supply chain risks as well as risk engineering. 



Zurich said that the VLR is free to use and accessible at www.zurichvlr.com and will be updated frequently with new literature and insights.