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Insurance & Business Continuity Management - A Roundtable Discussion

10 June 2010

The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) and global insurance broker Marsh recently brought together a number of representatives from the BCM community and the insurance industry in order to initiate dialogue around the relationship between client business continuity programmes and business interruption insurance products, pricing and terms of cover.

The roundtable discussion set out to establish a common baseline and understanding with major players from the insurance industry around attitudes towards clients with BCM programmes, and the extent to which such programmes can influence terms of cover for business interruption insurance. The discussion also focused on the role of professional standards in the BCM arena and the extent to which these were formally recognised by insurers.

The meeting, held on March 24th 2010, featured participants from AIRMIC (Association of
Insurance & Risk Managers), AXA, Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters, BCI, BSI, Marsh and
Zurich.

The BCI was keen to establish clarity on five points:
• What is the BCM link to Business Interruption insurance?
• What do insurers look for?
• What difference will a BCM programme make to the insurance terms provided?
• How should a BCM manager connect and communicate with insurance buyers in
their organisation?
• What does the BCM manager need to do? (or, why is their plan not being
recognised?)

The meeting concluded that BCM could bring benefit in five key areas:
• BCM was seen by insurers as a means to improve the quality of the business they
are underwriting and confirmed that BCM helps organisations mitigate impact,
recover faster and minimise losses.
• BCM can be used to protect against losses incurred through traditionally noninsurable
‘perils’ such as supplier insolvency or pandemic influenza.
• BCM can be used to better understand the requirements for BI cover (and
potentially lower the amount of cover purchased).
• BCM can help get BI cover where otherwise it would not be available.
• BCM can help to secure optimal terms for cover.

Download the full report from BCI here