INSURANCE BROKERS

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32541, 26 February 1971, Page 16

INSURANCE BROKERS

Independence necessary

Insurance brokers associated with Lloyd’s should be independent in their freedom to select the best market for their client's business, said Mr H. C. Stenhouse, the chairman of the world-wide group of insurance broking companies; he had been asked by “The Press” to comment on Lloyd’s refusal to have one of its brokers taken over by a U.K. insurance company. Lloyd’s brokers have to comply with stringent requirements, Mr Stenhouse said. They were carefully vetted, and their shares had to be held in a certain way. A registered insurance broker, approved by the council of underwriters,

could obtain for the assured complete access to all insurance markets, whether' Lloyd’s, the company market or any overseas market, he said. Mr Stenhouse, who is in New Zealand to inspect his business interests, said that his companies were interested in all classes of business, but especially marine insurance and the rapidly expanding field of industrial insurance.

Earlier it was reported that Mr Stenhouse had said in Sydney that his company was considering a public share issue later this year; this would be Australia’s first listed insurance broking company.

Referring to the present condition of the Australian share market, he said that the crash was to be expected. When the stock exchange was used as a place to gamble, people were bound to get hurt, he said. This happened in England or New York, as it had happened three years ago in Johannesburg.