The International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) is to widen its membership following a decision to establish a new class that will be known as IPP (IUMI Professional Partners) but it does not include brokers and intermediaries.

The Union has said that it will now consider applications from companies or entities falling into three categories: legal/law firms, surveying/adjusting firms, and business intelligence and software providers.  However it has reiterated membership is still not open to re/insurance brokers, nor firms or companies directly insured through marine insurance channels, such as shipbuilders, freight forwarders etc.

IUMI president Deirdre Littlefield said today: “There has been an ongoing discussion within our council about this development since the Vancouver annual conference in 2008, and we are now extremely pleased to have a consensus of opinion that means we can welcome to the IUMI family technical suppliers to the marine insurance industry. IUMI has been going from strength to strength in recent years, and is now widely regarded as the central voice and platform for marine underwriters worldwide. A broader-based membership will enable us to move forward in our aim to increase our value and influence within the international maritime community.”

Fritz Stabinger, IUMI’s Secretary General, added: “The benefits for an IPP will be membership in the IUMI community; admittance for up to two representatives at our annual conference; an advance list of conference attendees; identification on IUMI’s IPP webpage, including a link to the IPP’s own website; one page advertisement in the conference package; and consideration of IPP members as guest speakers at the annual conference. We look forward to welcoming our first IPPs in January 2010.”

IPPs must be sponsored by their local IUMI member association (i.e., in the UK it would be Lloyd’s or the IUA) within guidelines from IUMI’s executive committee and referred to the SG for final approval by the committee. Membership will be continuous to allow IPPs to build on their personal relationships with IUMI members, but subject to annual review by IUMI’s executive committee.

Only one commercial member per category, as defined in the guidelines, will be allowed per country, but two per category for countries among the ‘Tier 1’ member associations (France, Cefor, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lloyd’s, IUA, USA). For example, this means that a country like Belgium could have three IPPs, but the countries in ‘Tier 1’ could each have six.