This International Underwriting Association (IUA) training session is designed to provide all members with a basic understanding of UK and EU competition law and to assist them, by means of practical examples, to know what types of agreement and conduct are permissible, and thereby to avoid allegations of illegal conduct.

With competition authorities, at both national and EU level, increasingly willing to investigate companies operating in the financial sector, the threat of heavy fines on companies as well as disqualification and imprisonment of individuals who breach the competition rules becomes ever more real.

It is now more important than ever that all business people, especially those that have regular contact with other companies in the same industry, have an awareness of competition law – and in particular the rules and practice around exchanging commercially sensitive information. With so-called effective leniency programmes in place, there are big incentives for companies and individuals to blow the whistle on their participation in illegal conduct and thereby to avoid allegations of illegal conduct.