Alan Morgan-Moodie, chairman of the Association of International Life Offices, whose member firms offer tax-efficient investment products which typically make use of collective investment funds, made his comments on Thursday evening at an International Adviser event for fund houses and offshore life companies.
In informal comments directed at anyone at the event who might be an Efama member, Morgan-Moodie said, “we want to talk”.
On Friday, he elaborated, saying that until now, “we [and Efama] just haven’t managed to cooperate much, on issues like the EU Savings Directive.
“It would be very useful, from AILO’s perspective, if we could find common ground with Efama, and work together. It is probably too late for the savings directive, I think, that train has left the station. But there are other things coming along, and I would very much welcome a discussion with Efama.”
Morgan-Moodie said he would seek talks with top officials at Efama, and suggested that part of the problem might be a lack of a full understanding on the fund industry’s part of how the cross-border life insurance industry works, and some of its particular problems – such as solvency issues and its need to take a long-term approach – which the funds industry doesn’t share.
“We’re not just another version of them,” he said.
Efama director-general Peter DeProft responded that he was “absolutely delighted” that the AILO chairman, who he said he has never met, had “reach[ed] out to us”, and added that “on behalf of Efama I can say that we are very happy to take up the dialogue”.
DeProft said Efama regarded the cultivation of good relationships with other European trade organisations as a top priority, and noted that over the last two to three years it has forged strong links with such other organisations as the European Banking Association and the CEA, the European insurance and reinsurance federation, among others.
“It is particularly important that the different branches of the European financial industry have a dialogue right now, because there is so much on the agenda, such as Prips [packaged retail investment products] and [the ongoing review of] Mifid [the European Union’s Market in Financial Instruments Directive],” he added.
