The EU Commission’s review of the Insurance Mediation Directive (IMD) would create “greater transparency” across Europe, said Biba’s head of compliance and training Steve White.

Sitting on a panel alongside CII director-general Sandy Scott, Airmic technical director Paul Hopkin and managing director of independent broker Ashbourne Insurance, Peter Smits, White revealed that work has now started on revising the IMD in Brussels and that changes would be made.

He said IMD2 would be presented to the European Parliament by the end of next year.

During a visit to Brussels last month, Biba met with Tomas Kukal, chief lawyer in the EU Commission DG Internal Markets, to discuss the revision.

White said it was likely to be a “maximum harmonisation” directive, meaning there would be no “gold-plating” by EU states.

“The policy writers will be looking at how an IMD2 can create easier cross-border intermediation,” he said. They saw transparency as a “key issue”.

He added that there was pressure to review the current scope – which determined who needed to be regulated as a result of the IMD – with a definition over the term “introducing” set to be put together.

The panel also discussed the FSA’s review of commission disclosure and the resulting industry guidance. Hopkin claimed that Airmic was “left out” of the final stages of the negotiations surrounding the guidance after it called for mandatory disclosure.

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