Confidentiality and Security of Information

Within the insurance market it is common practice for companies to share confidential information, as it is usually part of the material information which by law the insured is obligated to disclose to insurers to allow them fully to quantify the risk that they are being offered. To enable this to happen there has to be an understanding that once information is passed to the broker that confidentiality will be preserved and this will be maintained through the offering and acceptance process thereafter with insurers.

Therefore, as you will note, within our Business Protocol document, which outlines the basis upon which we shall act for any client, we state:

Confidentiality and Security of Information

We are registered with the information commissioner and any information that you provide to us will not be used or intentionally disclosed by us except in the normal course of negotiating, maintaining or renewing the insurance, or for handling any claims thereunder, unless:

(a) we have obtained the necessary consent from you;

(b) we are required to disclose the information by a court of competent jurisdiction or governmental or regulatory body having the requisite authority over us; or

(c) the information is already in the public domain or has been received by us from a third party not under any duty of confidentiality.

We will take appropriate steps to maintain the security of your confidential documents and information which are in our possession.

In addition, we also have a 'terms of business' agreement with each insurer in the London market which also provides for confidentiality in the following terms:


Confidentiality

Each of the Parties will treat information received from the other relating to this Agreement and to the Insurance Business as confidential and will not disclose it to any other person not entitled to receive such information except as may be necessary to fulfil their respective obligations in the conduct of the Insurance Business and except as may be required by law or regulatory authority. For the avoidance of doubt each party shall be entitled to disclose such information where necessary to its insurers or reinsurers, actuaries, auditors, professional agents and advisers and other Group companies. This clause will not apply to information which was rightfully in the possession of such party prior to this Agreement, which is already public knowledge or becomes so at a future date (otherwise than as a result of a breach of this clause) or which is trivial or obvious.

Therefore, generally the insurance market acts on the basis of these agreements and no separate confidentiality agreement is entered into. When there is a request for a specific wording to address a particular concern, we tend to utilise one or other of two standard confidentiality agreements. One is an abbreviated version of the other. Insurers will agree to sign these forms, as will we.