1st Financial Law Workshop in 2017 Successfully hosted
Publish time: Mon May 08 09:36:46 CST 2017 Contributor:Rui Yang
On the afternoon of April 26 2017, the 1st Financial Law Workshop in 2017 organized by the Beijing Arbitration Commission / Beijing International Arbitration Center (the “BAC”) on the UK Insurance and Reinsurance Act and Arbitration of Insurance Dispute was successfully held at the BAC International Conference Hall.
Mr. Terry O’Neill and Mr. Philip Hill, senior experts on the UK insurance law from the Clifford Chance LLP, were invited to act as the speakers of the event, and Mr. Zou Zhihong, GM of PICC Legal Dept. and BAC arbitrator, the moderator. The Workshop centered on “An Overview of the UK Insurance and Reinsurance Market”, “A Summary of the UK Insurance Act and Its Major Principles”, “A Summary of the UK Reinsurance Act and Its Major Principles” and “Arbitration of the UK Insurance and Reinsurance Disputes”.
At the beginning of the event, Dr. Chen Fuyong, Deputy Secretary General of the BAC delivered an opening address on behalf of the hosting institution. He expressed welcome to the speakers from the UK as well as the audience, and shared the caseload statistics of international arbitrations and insurance arbitrations registered with the BAC.
Dr. Chen Fuyong
Mr. Zou Zhihong
Mr. Terry O’Neill started with “An Overview of the UK Insurance and Reinsurance Market”. Focusing on the most famous London insurance market, he provided an analysis of the London insurance market from both legal and marketing perspectives including the law application in England, the appealing system, the application of case law under the common law system and the market regulation and legal restriction on insurance companies. As the largest insurance organization of the UK, the operation of the Lloyd’s became one of focused issues of the audience. Mr. Terry O’Neill then made a detailed analysis of the Lloyd’s on its origin, transformation, operation and the establishment of branches. When mentioning the Chinese insurance market, he pointed out that “the insurance and reinsurance market of China is as huge as that of the Europe, and so this market is extremely important to us”.
Mr. Terry O’Neil
Next, Mr. Philip Hill presented his speech on the significant principles of the UK Insurance Act and Reinsurance Act, and then interpreted the duty to tell the truth, party autonomy, preconditions of guarantee and the subrogation right under the UK Insurance Act with a comparison of the old and the existing Insurance Act of the UK. Mr. Philip Hill pointed out that “the promulgation of the UK Insurance Act 2015 made some very important changes to the regulation of insurance that is different from the previous emphasis on the protection of insurance companies, under which the insurance applicant enjoys a more equal status with the insurance company, and that is very close to the situation of the Chinese insurance”.
Mr. Philip Hill
In the following section on the introduction of the UK Reinsurance Act, Mr. Terry O’Neil pointed out that “the insurance in the UK is only provided to insurance companies, dealing with integral commercial business and aiming to share risk and the demand for capital”. Thereafter, he made a classification of facultative reinsurance and treaty reinsurance, and then interpreted the respective operation of the two mode of reinsurance with reference to sample cases.
At last, the two speakers shared their experience of insurance claim oriented arbitrations based on their own practice. Mr. Philip Hill firstly made a brief clarification on the arbitral proceedings and the courts’ attitude toward arbitration. Subsequently, Mr. Terry O’Neill analyzed the potential risks in arbitrations arising from insurance disputes as well as the responding patterns, and then interpreted the factors that may affect the impartiality of arbitrators, the courts’ attitude in examining arbitrators’ impartiality with sample cases. Then he raised proposals concerning the selection of arbitrators, believing that “arbitrators must disclose his/her personal information, and the parties must be fully prepared before selecting arbitrators”.
The Workshop
In the Q&A session, the audience had an active interaction with the speakers and in-depth exchanges therewith on issues like third parties in insurance dispute arbitrations, the insurance of aircrafts and the criteria of insurance fraud.
Questions of audience
Interaction between speakers and audience
The insurance industry is developing quickly in China. While playing a growingly important role in economy, the improvement of insurance system and the construction of insurance dispute resolution mechanism have become significant issues attracting wide attention. The BAC expects to provide insurance practitioners with opportunities of exchange and to adopt lessons therefrom, by way of inviting leading experts worldwide on insurance to share their experience, so as to promote the growth of the Chinese insurance industry. The BAC sincerely welcomes colleagues interested in insurance and diversified dispute resolution to continue to pay attention to and participate in various colloquia and seminars organized by the BAC. You are welcome to pay attention to the BAC’s website and WeChat platform for more information.