The regional insurance market is facing a shake-up of its practices in order to ensure contract certainty.
Mirroring the reforms being put together in the London market, a working group headed by Royal & SunAlliance chief executive Duncan Boyle is now conducting a probe into the extent of the problem.
Boyle said the non-subscription market reform group would first need to establish whether contract certainty was a problem in the regions. It will then create a list of priorities to be addressed, he said.
"It should be relatively straightforward," he added.
Boyle said the group is investigating whether regional brokers have clarified the terms of the cover with all parties before inception is agreed.
It is also looking into the length of time it takes for contracts to be delivered to those insured.
"We should be sizing up the issue by July, and I hope to have an implementation plan agreed by November," said Boyle.
The plan will be put into practice at the beginning of 2006 in order that it is up and running by the FSA's contract certainty deadline of 31 December 2006.
"It is a question of making sure the disciplines are being enforced," Boyle said.
Surveys have been sent to ABI members with questions about contract certainty policies.
Biba has already collected data from its members and will be analysing the results next month.
"I anticipate there will be some differences between the two sets of results," Boyle said.
The committee is working alongside the Lloyd's market reform group chaired by Lloyd's chief executive Nick Prettejohn.
