Welcome to our first Regulatory Bulletin for 2019
As you know, our intention was for the structural changes that our Brexit plans required were to be made for 1 January 2019, and the good news is that has happened. We received the necessary court approval on 18 December 2018 and so our Part VII transfer from Hiscox Insurance Company to Hiscox SA became effective on 1 January 2019. This means we are now ready for Brexit, whatever the final outcome of the government’s negotiations.
What this means for European risks and customers
- 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.
- 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 HSA will not intermediate polices for EEA customers from the UK. 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 2019 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.
- For ROI customers, Hiscox SA has a registered branch in the Republic of Ireland, which will have the ability to write Irish risks going forward. If your client wishes to remain with Hiscox then they can be provided with cover by HSA Ireland on the same coverage and rating basis as they currently enjoy. HSA Ireland will not be in the position to engage with UK based brokers however so if your customer wishes to remain with Hiscox they can do so through a partner broker that we have identified through agency transfer mandate. Further details of this broker are available on request.
A note on motor green cards
Following recent guidelines received from the ABI we can confirm we are making preparations in the event that we will need to issue motor customers with green cards. If required, we will have green cards available from early March and will issue full details of how to obtain a green card from us nearer the time.
Want more?
You can access all our previous Regulatory Bulletins here.