Европейская Комиссия провела расследование конкурентной практики Международной группы клубов взаимного страхования. Причинам, по которым проводилось расследование, его ходу и результатам посвящена настоящая публикация.
A European Commission investigation into P&I club competition has failed toreach any firm conclusions. So why was the investigation launched, and will its abandonment leave the clubs with an untroubled route ahead?
Very early in August, the glad news issued forth from the competition authorities in Brussels. They had formed a view on the arrangements of the International Group of P&I Clubs, following an investigation, and they had concluded that the investigation was not sufficiently conclusive to confirm the Commission’s initial concerns that the agreements between clubs might be lessening competition between P&I clubs and/or restricting, to a certain extent, the access of commercial insurers, and/or other mutual P&I insurers to the relevant markets.
The announcement brought to an end aprocess that began in August 2010. Like many things European these days the conclusion was invested with a certain lameness. The narrative of why the investigation began, how it was conducted, and how the club interacted with the officials of the Competition Directorate seems in retrospect altogether underwhelming.
The parties certainly had a history. Brussels has never had much of a soft spot for shipping. It was very down on shipping conferences in the 1980s and it has no warm heart for the clubbiness of shipping. Europe is the home of a lot of powerful shippers who as a whole do not have much time in their industrial calculus for the desires of shipowners to earn freight in ways which have an effect of smoothing out the peaksand troughs of the shipping cycle. Moreover, early in the 1990s, as a result of pressure from Greek shipowners, the competition directorate had forced upon the clubs a number of rules that made changing clubs, at least in theory, a little easier for the members.
On the face of it, there is plenty in P&I to attract the attentions of antitrust officials. The clubs share claims between themselves and, over a certain level, by way of are insurance pool bought from the insurance market. They agree they will not underbideach other for shipowner business already held, and they will not give inducements toowners to switch to them from the “holding club”. The penalties for doing so are severe–the offending club loses the protection of the reinsurance bought by the InternationalGroup of Clubs in respect of the shipsconcerned.
The clubs cooperate on a whole range of specialist issues and there are sub-committeeson all manner of cargoes and risk issues. Since they pool their claims, there is a deal of scrutiny over large claims to ensure they are settled in accordance with the club rules,the wordings of which are also harmonised between the 12 clubs in the group. As an industry, the P&I world is heavily eurocentric, highly established, and very durable. It is from time to time described inthe shipping press as a cartel and were it notso peculiar, were it a mere branch of commercial, industrial fixed price insurance,the way it goes about its business would have long been altered by modern competitive realities.
Origins
It is a peculiar industry as a result of its origins. The capital which the oceanshipping industry puts aside for third-party liability exposures is under the stewardshipof mutual associations, which some say arethe last living link with the 19th century. Non-profit associations, set up under theself-help doctrines of largely British Victorian shipowners, the clubs cannot easily be acquired by others or merged with large corporate joint stock companies. They are managed by specialist companies set up with limited aims and they make a little capital go a long way. This is important not only for the financial futures of the club. The club executive managers handle the claims, many of which drag on for years or even decades. They aim to break even over the long term, setting their prices and planning their calls to ensure that the process is as smooth as it can be made over say five or six years. They prefer this ponderous progress to the wilder gyrations of the insurance cycle.
Why did the antitrust authorities again fix their eyes on P&I? The theories for this are various. Some think it is the fringe fixed premium P&I insurance industry that had a word with the regulators. Insurance companies who have a toe in the P&I water tend to specialise in small ships orhard-to-insure ships. They are loath to mix it with the clubs, if only because the prices charged by the clubs are low and the marginsof underwriting surplus are not wide.
Mutual clubs that are not part of the International Group cannot offer the highlimits offered by the group and cannot enforce any price discipline when incompetition with them. The largest andmost estimable of the fixed premium P&I providers, British Marine, is nowadays, following its demutalisation and sale, a part of the QBE insurance company. A large proportion of its staff in recent times decamped to start up an operation called Lodestar, a development that ended incourt actions and injunctions to delay itsstart date. There are much easier ways of earning a handsome premium surplus thanfixed P&I insurance.
Another reason mooted for the investigation is the difficulty outsiders have in joining the International Group of Clubs. The outsiders tend to be just that. The last to join was the New York-based American Club. The latest applicant is the China P&IClub. Others like the Korean P&I Clubmight like to join one day. But the group isslow to open ranks.
Outcome
The closing down of the investigation was of course welcomed by the clubs and people like the International Chamber of Shipping. The clubs and the P&I trade were on the whole underwhelmed by the process of theinvestigation. They complained they wereput to a lot of work and expense to educate officials who understood little and knew lessof this arcane branch of marine insurance. The investigating team was changed, international civil service fashion, midway through the investigation. The new peopleneeded to be educated all over again to getthem up to speed. In the end it rather looksas if the whole thing ran out of puff.
So the status quo prevails. But is plainsailing to be expected? May be not. The sanctions against Iran have ushered in an era where a key form of insurance to shipowners is not available to all comers. In an oil thirsty world this may end in tears.
The needs of the shipowners of the Pacific Century many not over time be wellor adequately met from operations largely based in Arendal, London, Newcastle, Gothenburg or New York. There are a dozen clubs in the International Group, some of which are struggling to justify their places in the modern shipping world. These ‘me-too’ operations may be the ones to watch in our changing times.
Автор: Sam Ignarski