Aviva’s Commercial Underwriting Academy has received Continuing Professional Development accreditation from the Chartered Insurance Institute for its training modules.
Aviva’s Commercial Underwriting Academy has received Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) for its training modules.
Achieving the CII’s CPD status means that any of the company’s 2,200 commercial underwriters who are CII qualified can gain CPD points when they complete a training module, deliver a workshop or help create new modules.
Jamie Lye, Aviva’s head of underwriting effectiveness, says: “This recognition from the CII confirms that all our underwriting training material meets a credible, external benchmark. As the recognised professional body in our industry it’s a great accolade that our work meets the CII standards.
“In the general insurance market, we stand or fall by the underwriting decisions we make and, in these difficult economic conditions, it’s critical that we underwrite for profit to achieve our aims in this business. And this approach complements the overall Aviva strategy to be a company built on great underwriting.”
The underwriting academy, founded in 2001, offers approximately 130 training modules covering property, liability, motor and specialist classes of business for all Aviva’s commercial underwriters, including the Bonus team permanently located in broker offices. The focus is on continuous development of knowledge and ability in order to increase underwriters’ decision-making and risk acceptance authority.
Jamie Lye adds: “The higher the quality of our underwriters and the greater the level of authority held by them, the better it is for our brokers and partners, who are then able to deal with people qualified to discuss risk in depth and achieve better terms and prices for their commercial clients.
“The objective is to have as much underwriting decision-making as possible made by people on the front line of our business. They are the ones with the local relationships, understanding of the risk and thus are best equipped to provide the appropriate trading decision.”
Aviva CEO, David McMillan, says: “The team has done a stunning job. Gaining CII accreditation is a huge achievement, furthering our investment in our Underwriting Academy and benefiting our people, brokers and partners.”
Tamsin Mills, director of CII Accreditation Services, says: “This is a considerable achievement because consistency of standards needs to be achieved throughout the whole of the underwriting academy to meet the CII CPD accreditation standards and Aviva is to be congratulated for doing so.”
Aviva’s underwriting academy is working on the next phase of its development, aiming to achieve Prior Learning accreditation by the end of 2010. This will give underwriters credits towards CII qualifications up to Advanced Diploma level.
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For further information, please contact:
Jon Clements Staniforth on 0161 919 8022/07872 118364 or Sally Leeman from Aviva’s press office on 01603 684225 / 07789 270677
Notes to editors:
Aviva is the world’s fifth largest* insurance group, serving 53 million customers across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
Aviva's main business activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £45.1 billion and funds under management of £379 billion at 31 December 2009.
We are the largest insurance services provider in the UK and one of the leading providers of life and pensions products in Europe.
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* based on gross worldwide premiums at 31 December 2008