A leading insurance broker has added his voice to growing industry calls for brokers to be GISC compliant before the Financial Services Authority (FSA) takes responsibility for regulation in 2004.

The chairman of Birmingham-based broker Perkins Slade, David Slade, said: "I think any broker who fails to join the General Insurance Standards Council (GISC) is missing the best possible chance he has of surviving.

"As [Biba chief executive] Mike Williams said, if you're not registered with the FSA, you're trading criminally, and I don't want to be a criminal."

He added that many brokers were entrepreneurs who were not necessarily very good administrators or record keepers.

"We're total advocates of being members of GISC ... because it's about learning a whole new discipline, the discipline of regulation and compliance and record keeping, which we haven't necessarily ever done in the past," he said.

Slade, who was speaking at last week's British Insurance Brokers Association (Biba) conference in Manchester, added that the riskier world environment meant that brokers had to change and improve the advice that they gave to their customers.

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