CIAB Expands Global Market Opportunities

The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB) announced that it is teaming up with the Worldwide Broker Network (WBN) to form an expanded global network to move and coordinate information and facilitate client services around the world.

Under a two-year joint operating agreement that begins on Jan. 1, 2005, the CIAB and WBN will expand the global network to help serve clients’ interests in markets around the world. The operating agreement will be administered by CIAB. As a global organization, WBN will maintain a European location and relationships around the world.

“Joining forces with WBN represents the next logical step after more than a decade of initiatives aimed at giving Council members and their clients the resources they need to be active and successful participants in global commerce,” said Ken A. Crerar, ClAB president.

“In 2004, nearly all commercial interests face global risks,” said CIAB Chairman Frederick J. de Grosz, president of ABD Insurance & Financial Services Inc.

WBN Chairman Jacques Verlingue, president and CEO of Verlingue Courtier en Assurances, a French brokerage firm, praised the agreement because of the similarities in the membership of the two organizations.

“This is a good fit with a large cross-over of members,” Verlingue said. “WBN members are the leading intermediaries in the global marketplace, are engaged in the same mix of commercial business as CIAB members, and approach the industry with the same culture and orientation.”

Both organizations claim that the partnership will spur an expansion of the global network into Asia, Central and South America, Africa, and other key insurance markets in the world.