Ed Balls, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, has announced that freight forwarders will be “removed from the scope of FSA insurance regulation”, a move designed to decrease regulation in the industry and help promote its international competitiveness.
He said: “I want to listen to businesses and work with them to abolish all unnecessary burdens on industry. The financial dialogues over the summer and the meeting of the High Level Group this Wednesday have helped create a great moment of opportunity to assess the challenges facing our financial services industry and to push forward with further reform.”
HM Treasury will make the regulatory change through secondary legislation which will follow a public consultation later this year.
Colin Beaumont director-general of British International Freight Association said: “This is excellent news for the freight forwarder however we must be aware that before it can take effect the law will have to be changed and there are a number of steps that will have to be taken before this comes about.”
He said he was delighted that the industry would be once again placed in a competitive position with the rest of Europe, “as far as the offer of insurance is concerned.”
