CII, CILA Launch U.K. Claims Faculty

The U.K’s Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA) announced the launch of a new forum for the insurance industry’s 100,000-strong claims. The bulletin noted that Britain’s general insurance industry pays around £50 million ($91 million) a day in claims.

“The Faculty of Claims, formed jointly by the CII and the CILA, is for everyone at the claims coal face,” said the bulletin. ‘”It will draw heavily on the expertise and experience of claims practitioners to ensure it is by the market, for the market. The faculty has been founded with three core aims:
— The provision of appropriate exams, assessments and qualifications for all claims roles
–Maintaining and enhancing competence
— Raising standards and levels of professionalism across the claims community

Faculty of Claims chairman Jonathan Clark commented: “Insurance is a promise – a promise to protect our policyholders when things go wrong for them. Claims professionals are the people who keep that promise on behalf of the industry as a whole. This new faculty is being launched in recognition of the importance of the role they play.

“The way in which our industry handles claims can make or break our reputation. Claims is the real front line of the industry. While over 95 per cent of claims are handled to our customers’ satisfaction, that difficult five per cent is Pandora’s box of reputational and legal problems. Our aim is to squeeze that five per cent by improving our professionalism, increasing our knowledge and ensuring the customer is treated fairly.

“Our aim is to create a centre of excellence in which those involved in the claims process can meet, share their experiences and ideas, and find innovative new solutions to challenges such as fraud or improving customer care. The faculty will encourage faster and more accurate claims handling; faster decision-making and improved service by the industry as a whole.”

CII Director General, Dr Sandy Scott, said that the new faculty was the first in a series of faculties that will deliver added value for CII members by focussing training and professional development activity into key areas for the industry. He noted that, “the CII’s aim is to ensure the training and development it provides is as relevant to the industry’s needs as it can be. By creating a Faculty of Claims, we’re ensuring that everything we do for the claims community is focussed by claims people for claims people doing the job itself.”

CILA’s President, Andy King, observed that the “faculty is the next step in the development of CILA’s Society of Claims Technicians and supports our core objective to raise professional standards and so encourage world-leading, highly effective and cost efficient claims services to meet the needs of today and the future.”

The bulletin also noted that “Other key figures from the industry have also offered their support for the new faculty.” Commenting on the initiative Eric Galbraith, CEO of the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA), indicated that his organization “supports the establishment of this new Faculty of Claims as a major step forward for professional development in the insurance industry. As every broker in Britain knows, when a customer has a good claims experience, it creates immense loyalty and promotes the reputation of both the broker and the industry through word of mouth; but a bad experience leads to lost business and damaged relationships. This initiative by the CII and CILA has the potential to really help in this area.”

Members of Society of Claims Technicians will automatically have their memberships transferred to the new Faculty of Claims.