Backing up the brokers

At Biba we are run by members for members and always put the needs and aspirations of our members first. Our board, and influential general insurance brokers committee, is composed entirely of practicing brokers and intermediaries, both large and small, who are in touch with the needs of the industry.

It is important that members' voices are heard at the highest level, which is why we place particular emphasis on maintaining high-level links with the government, the FSA, the ABI and all major organisations in the financial services sector.

Biba has developed a reputation among members for delivering quality training at competitive prices.

Members are becoming increasingly more focused on ensuring that their staff are competent, as required by the FSA.

To our minds, competence can best be described as "the combination of the appropriate skills and knowledge to perform the required role".

With this description in mind, Biba is continuing to refine its training programme for members by widening the scope of courses to include more business/soft skill and compliance events.

In addition to the published programme of training events, Biba is arranging an increasing number of in-house events, where individual or groups of members require specific courses at their own premises.

Biba provides a range of compliance support services to assist members both achieve and evidence their compliance.

The services include:

- Telephone and email compliance technical assistance, handling hundreds of enquiries from members every month

- The Compliance Manual - now available on CD-Rom. This comprehensive, but simply written, tool is proving invaluable to the hundreds of members who have purchased it

- The Compliance Initiative - provides members with access to a range of compliance facilities, provided by a choice of expert providers at commercially attractive terms. The range of available facilities include: health checks; audits; training programmes; and bespoke arrangements

- Training. We have and will continue to provide compliance training events regionally. Nearly 90% of brokers questioned say their training requirements have increased since FSA regulation and 80% encourage their staff to take CII examinations. More than half have some form of management training in place.

This is where Biba helps to fill the gaps. As a not-for-profit organisation we are not out to cash in on training needs.

We offer an extensive range of seminars and training courses and every year around 2,000 brokers benefit. About 150 training courses or seminars a year are arranged in London and around the country. That works out at about three a week, which is a punishing schedule by anyone's standards.

We pay particular attention to the CII and we work closely with it to set industry standards for training and compliance. We work closely with the CII on protecting and improving the industry.

The award-winning brokerAssess is a crucial part of training at Biba.

Launched in August 2003, together with the CII, brokerAssess helps brokers to prepare for and meet the continuing challenges of statutory regulation under the FSA.

More than 12,000 individual licences for the system, which provides an objective measure of employees' knowledge and understanding, have been taken up since launch.

The brokerAssess system includes a broker-validated question bank with more than 3,000 questions and answers.

Vital evidence

The online system allows member firms to identify knowledge gaps and then work to fill them. The gap analysis tool is crucial in identifying problems and sorting them out before they become serious. It also produces a suite of reporting literature which records the vital evidence required in any audit.

Our regional network of 13 committees across the country means we are more than just a City of London-based organisation issuing orders from the centre.

Our regional events are held at different locations across the UK and all training carries the requisite CPD points as evidence of continuing professional education.

Members are provided with the latest information and advice on the widest range of topical insurance subjects.

The members-only section of our website
Our annual conference, which in 2006 will be held in Brighton, attracts more than 1,700 delegates and is a real networking opportunity for everyone attending, with many people attending free on bursaries.

For many members though, the most important service - many say it is worth the price of membership alone - is access to our range of over 25 exclusive products and schemes available only to members.

Insurance products

The award winning portfolio of schemes is a range of specially negotiated insurance products offering unique benefits to Biba members and their clients, both business and consumer.

Hand-picked by Biba's broker committee, the schemes range from travel to household insurance, and terrorism to marine insurance.

They offer benefits to brokers, with access to specialist markets, extensive cover and a competitiveness that is difficult to find on the open market.

For members, having access to such a range of policies and schemes is a real benefit as it means they don't have to search the market. Brokers can simply take down an off-the-shelf policy which they know they can rely on.

They are offered support in the sale of these schemes and many of the schemes are now available via links found on the Biba website.

Focusing purely on the needs of members and their views we know it is crucial that brokers go down the road of more member support and that is what we set out to supply.

Paul Garland is Biba membership manager.

If you have a specific training requirement, or wish to discuss any of our programmed events, contact the compliance and training department at Biba on 0844 77 00 266, or email training@biba.orguk.