ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the duties and liabilities of brokers. It considers the position as reflected in reported cases concerning brokers, and then the position under the Insurance Conduct of Business Rules (ICOB) introduced by the FSA pursuant to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, including the guidance recently given by the Court of Appeal as to their interpretation. The vast majority of insurances relating to construction projects and to participants in construction projects is placed through brokers with specialist knowledge of the relevant insurance markets and their practices, and on behalf of relatively sophisticated clients. Particularly where brokers are acting in the Lloyd's market in respect of reinsurance recoveries, brokers are likely to receive funds. Brokers owe duties going beyond those of a post box. The broker also has a duty to check his own records to ensure that material matters are passed on to insurers: Dunbar v A & B Painters.
