Lloyd’s has announced the transfer of Lloyd’s Italian Branch to Lloyd’s Insurance Company (LIC) concluding the integration of the European network into LIC, a post-Brexit move to consolidate Lloyd’s European business.
The UK’s exit from the European Union meant British insurers like Lloyd’s were no longer able to underwrite EU risks directly from London. In order to secure its access to European markets post-Brexit Lloyd’s established Lloyd’s Insurance Company (Lloyd’s Europe), an insurance and reinsurance subsidiary based in Brussels.
According to the announcement, when Lloyd’s Europe was established in 2018, Lloyd’s agreed with regulatory authorities to integrate the European network into LIC in a reasonable time frame. Most of Lloyd’s European entities were integrated into LIC in 2021.
Alongside the news of the transfer of Lloyd’s Italian Branch to LIC, Lloyds also announced the introduction of a new fee for services provided to distributors by the Lloyd’s Italian office from 1 November 2022.
Lloyd’s said: “As part of this transition, Lloyd’s is taking the opportunity to replace the “Italian levy” (an additional charge of 0.75% of gross written premium levied on business administered through the Lloyd’s Italian office) with a new service fees model from 1 November 2022. The new service fee will be paid by local distributors.”
“The new fee model reflects the many unique market services that Lloyd’s Italy provides to Italian coverholders, open market correspondents, and agents, including: policy production and issuance, premium collection, IPT payment, and public tenders production,” Lloyd’s added.
Under the new model the recipients of services (local distributors in Italy) will only pay for the services that they use, Lloyd’s explained.
The fees that local distributors will be charged for services include a flat fee for using the Mocha/DoPrint platform – €1000 for Coverholders; €500 for Open Market Correspondents and Agents; a volume based €1 policy fee per section / line of business for policy issuance; and a €1000 fee per section / line of business for Public Tender policies with a premium equal or higher than €25.000,00. For premium lower than €25.000,00 a €1 policy fee per section / line of business will apply for policy issuance services.
Lloyds noted that it is working with all local coverholders, open market correspondents and agents to update their agreements to include the service fee.
