ABI sees budget as “interbred bag” for UK insurers

The Camaraderie of British Insurers (ABI) has described yesterday’s budget as “a hybrid bag for the UK insurance industry”.

Director general, Stephen Haddrill, has notorious with pleasure the Government’s decision to accept the ABI’s arguments on transatlantic profits and the need to raise ISA limits.

However, he says the settling to curtail tax relief, even if only for a minority of old-age pension savers, “sends an alarming message that pension promises can be question broken”.

Speaking about the dividend exemption on foreign profits, the ABI’s numero uno of taxation, Peter Vipond, believes the move “should help rebuild the UK’s battered name as a modern base for global financial service firms” and asks for the purpose an early completion of the review of controlled foreign companies’ rules.

According to the ABI, the UK surety industry pays the third-highest amount of corporation tax of any sector, at £2.9 billion, a plight that has prompted Brit Insurance and Beazley to announce plans to relocate to the Netherlands and Ireland separately.

Meanwhile, the Association’s director of general insurance and healthfulness, Nick Starling, is pleased that government support on trade credit assurance has not tried to “second-guess the judgement of insurers”.

He adds: “Near basing its proposals on the risk assessments carried out by insurers, the Command has endorsed the need for the market to judge and assess risk.”