Report from the AIRMIC Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland

Good showing at the Conference - the biggest turnout for a non-London event in AIRMIC's history. Some of the developing themes in discussions here:

Two issues highlight the delicate balance AIRMIC straddles between the demands of the membership of risk managers and the leverage of the insurers whose products are so necessary to those risk managers.

First, risk managers last year announced that they would band together to produce a benchmark of claims paying by underwriters. In the last 12 months there has been a high level of serious discussion with the insurers but no product. Perhaps this discussion is the baseline goal for AIRMIC, but they are looking to produce some results of this survey by the end of the year.

Second, risk managers are upset about insurers' overuse of Reservation of Rights in the claims negotiation. The expected response from underwriters of an agreed protocol for this was well-received.

Separately, Directors & Officers Insurance (D&O insurance) is at the forefront of many panel discussions and with the hardening market for financial institution buyers of D&O and the expected impact on the general corporate market for D&O, it's not surprising.

Marsh sent a press release out about its online benchmarking database which highlights just how much larger Advisen's is.

And finally, John Hurrell, CEO of AIRMIC is a great public speaker and not just because of his impassioned plug for the Advisen / AIRMIC Benchmark Survey, but because he's already connected to the AIRMIC membership in this, his first Annual Conference.