The insurance industry will get a first glimpse of the European Commission's (EC) inquiry findings into anti-competitive practices when it publishes an interim report early next month.
Trade associations, brokers, intermediaries, and insurance companies from across all 25 member states will receive a preliminary report on the business insurance market in the first week of November.
Eric Galbraith, chief executive of Biba, told Insurance Times that the European Federation of Insurance Intermediaries (BIPAR), of which Biba is a member, will comment and respond to the paper on its behalf.
The consultation period is expected to last for three months before the EC produces a final report some time in 2007.
If the report finds anti-competitive practices as a result of its inquiries it could force legislative change in the form of a directive or direct regulation, an industry source said.
An interim report had been expected at the end of September, but a second wave of questionnaires sent out to trade associations by the EC in July this year is thought to have delayed the report's publication.
