The Chartered Insurance Institute is moving towards a multiple-choice exam scheme for brokers and intermediaries who wish to become chartered insurance brokers.
CII director-general David Bland told Insurance Times last week that there was no appetite within the membership for granting CII chartered status without examinations being passed. "Only about ten per cent of our members would vote for grandfathering rights," he said.
Instead, the CII is working on a set of multiple-choice exams. The hope is that currently qualified members would find this form of entry acceptable, while non-qualifieds would not be deterred by onerous study commitments.
Under the General Insurance Standards Council regime, the title insurance broker disappears. The new title of chartered insurance broker would be the only way brokers and intermediaries could differentiate their titles from rivals.
The Institute of Directors recently devised a similar scheme in order to extend its membership. Said Bland: "Their multiple choice exams worked very well, and we are hopeful that a concessionary admission scheme can be introduced successfully within the CII."
The CII hopes to put the proposal to the vote by May/June next year, well in time for the repeal of the Insurance Brokers Registration Act and the transfer of brokers to the new regulatory regime.
