ITIC maintains loyalty credit

Despite the sharp downturn, mutual insurer, International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC), will pay a continuity credit to all those members who renew their cover with the club during the 2009 policy year, which begins on June 1, 2009. According to a press release, this is the 14th consecutive year that ITIC has paid the credit, which comes in the form of a premium discount. According to ITIC, the club provides the fourth highest continuity credit, which is increasingly becoming a feature among Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Clubs. Club manager, Stuart Munro said that ITIC’s board of directors consider it their duty to provide as much support as they can to members in order to reduce their insurance costs as the contraction in the availability of finance and the continuing decline in world trade are hitting the transportation industry hard. Mr Munro said that ITIC had again elected to pay these credits in recognition of the continuing loyalty of the club’s members at a time when so many companies were not paying dividends. He described it as one of the great strengths of a mutual insurer “because surpluses accrue to the membership, rather than to third party shareholders.”