New Spanish Legislation Levels the Insurance Playing Field

17 May 2007

Until now, for the expat community in Spain, buying insurance has tended to be clouded by uncertainly. Some agents have been purporting to be brokers when they were actually only selling products from one company and therefore potentially not acting in the best interest of the client.

However, that is all about to change. From 18 July 2007 The Spanish government has ruled that all insurance brokers in Spain must conform to Europe-wide business standards - A European Union directive requires organisations describing themselves as 'brokers' to sell a range of products from competing insurers.

The EU directive also requires that brokers must be registered, comply with an advertising code and carry EUR 1,000,000 per claim professional indemnity cover.

This change is long overdue, the directive came into force across the rest of Europe in January 2005.

UK-based insurers operating in Spain are already regulated by the FSA, so they should already be compliant with EU legislation and unaffected by the changes. They generally welcome the new legislation in Spain as local companies must now operate by the same rules as British ones.

Details of cover from Intasure, Currency UK's overseas property partner, can be found at: www.intasure.com