Editor’s letter – April 2011

As you can see, there’s a big focus on networks this month. Once seen as an anomaly, they are now a firmly established aspect of the market. And one way they have often sold themselves is that they are a security blanket. The claim is that they can protect brokers from the worst of the market’s volatility by providing safety in numbers but, as we ask in the reportage do they simply tell brokers what they want to hear?

Well one test of this ‘safety' that networks provide could be on its way - and it's some test. Lord Jackson's proposals for reformation of civil litigation funding are to be implemented in full, news that has been widely welcomed in the market.

However, there is a potential sting in the tail for brokers - the ABI is calling for the reforms to go further and to include an outright ban on referral fees. And as brokers you will know better than I how much income is derived from this source.

This