THE Professional Insurance Brokers Association (PIBA), which represents brokers in the Republic, has called for the establishment of a new authority to regulate investment intermediaries.
The association is urging the Minister to establish an independent bureau to cover all broker transactions. The bureau should be funded by insurance companies, banks and building societies, the PIBA said. Its chairman, Mr Kieran Murphy, said it had presented its proposals to the Minister for Science and Technology, Mr Pat Rabbitte.
PIBA has also indicated its strong support to the Minister for greater transparency in all aspects of financial services transactions, including commissions, charges and fees, according to Mr Murphy.
PIBA member brokers are monitored and regulated by the statutory regulatory body, the Insurance Intermediaries Compliance Bureau (IICB) and operate separately from the rival Irish Brokers Association (IBA). The majority of brokers in the Republic are members of the IBA.
The PIBA said that despite the new Investment Intermediaries Act, existing regulatory provisions were inadequate to the task of safeguarding the public interests or diminishing the possibilities for rogue transactions by rogue traders".
While it believed "rogue" traders should be stopped, Mr Murphy said that PIBA did not have a firm view on whether members found to have acted inappropriately should be brought before the courts and fined.
The association believed that the setting up of a new regulatory body was now essential if public confidence in the industry was to be restored. A number of recent high-profile cases, where clients dealing with intermediaries had lost substantial sums of money, had proved very damaging for their business, it said.
PIBA has called for all broker intermediaries to be closely monitored and spot-checked by a new regulatory authority which could be called the Financial Services Intermediaries Compliance Bureau. The association was formed in 1994 and the majority of its members are solely involved in insurance based business.
