Monarch airline ticket agents reassured over claims amid crisis at CBL insurance

Affirma Insurance has reassured Monarch ticket agents that their insolvency claims will be settled, even though its underwriter, CBL Insurance fell into administration. 

Monarch Airlines went into administration in October 2017. Affirma, the supplier and financial failure insurer, provided insurance for the collapsed airline, underwritten by CBL Corporation.

CBL Insurance has today been put into interim liquidation by New Zealand’s High Court.

In the past few weeks, CBL Corp has halted trading on two stock markets (Australia and New Zealand), had its credit rating downgraded, been ordered to increase its capital at the insurance arm by two central reserve banks, had its chief operations officer leave after only two weeks in the job, pull out of its biggest business (French construction insurance), and predict a net loss of around NZ$75m-$85m.

It’s European subsidiary, CBL Insurance Europe, has also been told to stop writing new business by the Irish Central Bank.

Then one of its major clients, Ryanair, has confirmed it has started looking for a new insolvency insurer.

Lawrence Assock, Affirma’s head of commercial partnership and underwriter, said CBL had confirmed it was currently signing off claimants’ payments resulting from Monarch’s failure and they are in the process of being paid:

“There is not a problem with our insurer, every single client is happy about this. Anybody that had a failure policy and has submitted claims will get them settled,” he told TTG.

Unfortunately, Monarch does not currently have the same luxury as Ryanair. In its current state, it would be some achievement if it were to find a new insolvency insurer.

An Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) spokesperson also said that there did not appear to be an issue, insisting “members are getting claims paid.”