Welcome to our final Regulatory Bulletin for 2018.
Our Brexit plans are progressing well, and as you will know from our regulatory bulletins each month our intention is for the structural changes that our plan requires to be made by 1 January 2019.
Ahead of the festive season, there are a few important things for you to be aware of:
- Subject to court approval, from 2 January 2019 onwards you will see some small but important changes. For EEA located risks and customers, the carrier will appear as Hiscox SA, and where customers have a mix of UK and EEA risks you will start to see mixed policies with the carrier appearing as Hiscox Insurance Company and Hiscox SA accordingly.
- It is essential that all EEA risks are insured by Hiscox SA, therefore where we offer automatic cover for subsidiaries in the EEA we are updating our wordings to restrict the automatic cover to UK subsidiaries only. These changes will take place as policies renew and details will be in the summary of change document that you receive. EEA subsidiaries can of course still be covered under the policy but we need to add them to the policy explicitly in order for them to be allocated to the correct insurer (Hiscox SA). There is no need to make any changes to policies until they renew.
- Post-Brexit HUL (the service company we use to write all HIC and HSL risks in the UK) will not be able to intermediate polices for EEA customers. Therefore, we have agreed with the regulator that post-Brexit the HSA UK branch will only be used for UK customers with EEA risks. It cannot be used to write business for EEA-based customers. Therefore, from 1 January Hiscox UK will no longer be able to write or renew risks in respect of an EEA customer. However, we will continue to service all policies for EEA customers until their next renewal. Please contact your local underwriter if you have any questions.
- The routes through which you contact Hiscox are unchanged as a result of Brexit so your first point of contact for things like quotes, renewals, endorsements or claims are all the same. You will be dealing with the same Hiscox team and can expect the same from us in terms of process and service levels.
- There will be no change to our existing TOBAs as a result of Brexit, however we are refreshing our TOBAs as is best practice to do so from time to time, and in light of regulatory changes such as GDPR. We will be in touch with more information on this in the New Year so there is nothing for you to do for now.
Please also be aware that we will be carrying out some essential planned maintenance to some of our core underwriting and claims management systems between Christmas and New Year. As a result we will be unable to provide quotes, sell policies, process endorsements or pay claims from close of business on Friday 28 December until business opens on 2 January 2019. Customers will still be able to notify us of a new claim through the usual channels – by calling the team 0800 247 1902 or by emailing us at [email protected]. Our team will be well placed to assist you over the festive period on 24, 27 and 28 December 2018 and from 2 January 2019. We would advise you to speak to us about any new business, renewals or endorsements for 2018 before Christmas wherever possible, and if you have any questions please speak to your usual Hiscox contact.
Want more?
You can access all our previous Regulatory Bulletins here.