About us
Key Facts
- Over 95,000 members in more than 150 countries.
- Largest insurance and financial services professional body in the world.
- Over 125 years experience of supporting the industry and promoting the public interest.
- Awarded the Royal Charter in 1912.
- Over 70 affiliated institutes across the world.
- 16% of the CII’s members are based outside the UK
- The number of members has increased by 50% since 2000.
- We have 19,800 individual Chartered members.
- There are three international CII offices (India, Bahrain & Hong Kong).
What is the Chartered Insurance Institute?
As the premier professional body for the global financial services profession, the Chartered Insurance Institute (the CII) promotes higher standards of integrity, technical competence and business capability.
With over 95,000 members in more than 150 countries, the CII is the world’s largest professional body dedicated to insurance and financial services. Our membership covers all disciplines within the insurance industry (claims, broking, underwriting and sales), those working in the life and pensions sector and the mortgage advice market as well as independent financial advisers (under our sub-brand the Personal Finance Society).
As one of the largest examination awarding bodies in the UK, we have delivered education to over one million students in 150 countries over the last ten years. The CII is accredited by UK examinations regulator, Ofqual, and our qualifications are also recognised within the English national qualification frameworks. Success in CII qualifications is universally recognised as evidence of knowledge and understanding. Membership of the CII signals a desire to develop broad professional capability and to subscribe to the standards associated with professional status.
Our Royal Charter remit is "to secure and justify the confidence of the public" in our members and in the insurance and financial services sector. Never has this been more necessary. The CII is working hard to restore public confidence and trust in the financial services market. We believe this will be achieved by creating a genuine global profession where the best interests of the consumer are to the fore, where ongoing learning and expertise are cherished, and where the highest standards of ethical behaviour are pursued.
The CII works with businesses to develop bespoke, company-wide solutions that ensure competitive advantage by enhancing employees’ technical and professional competence.
Individually, our members are able to drive their personal development and maintain their professional standing through an unrivalled range of learning services and by adhering to the CII’s Code of Ethics.
The Chartered Insurance Institute: Protecting the public by guiding the profession
Industry-led
The CII is engaged with the industry to help to drive the direction and improve the awareness of the importance of professionalism and the CII. Our system of Faculties and Societies ensures that CII services reflect the highly specialised nature of many of its professional members and corporate customers. The CII Group encompasses:
- Four General Insurance Faculties (Underwriting; Claims; Insurance Broking; London Market)
- The Faculty of Life and Pensions
- The Personal Finance Society (PFS) – the UK’s premier and largest body for financial advisers.
- The Society of Mortgage Professionals
This structure ensures firms and individuals from across the market receive the dedicated support they need to ensure regulatory compliance, market effectiveness and professional development.
Protecting the Public by Guiding the Profession
The CII is committed to improving the reputation and standing of the insurance and financial services sector with a renewed focus on professionalism, ethics, and investing in talent – both in the UK and overseas. To this end we are driving forward a long-term programme of development which involves an expanded capacity for professional standards, such as Continuing Professional Development and ethics, and thought leadership through research and policy development. This is both a challenge to our members to raise standards across the profession as well as to ourselves to build a professional body that can support and deliver this goal.
CII – a global body
The CII has 16% (nearly 16,000) of members outside the UK in around 150 countries and 71 affiliated institutes. CII has offices in the Far East, Middle East and India. This is an area in which the CII is growing fast - international membership grew by 10% in 2009.
An increasing emphasis for the CII is our growing international membership and helping to develop standards where the CII’s experience and brand is highly valued. We are focusing particularly on growth markets in the Middle East, India and South Asia and Hong Kong.
India: www.cii.co.uk/india ; Middle East: www.cii.co.uk/mena ; Asia-Pacific: www.cii.co.uk/asia-pacific
Current focus
The Aldermanbury Declaration: we led the Insurance Profession Task Force, made up of leading industry figures, in developing a package of principles aimed at enhancing professionalism across general insurance. These principles focus on developing best practice, a commitment to excellence, continued professional development and adherence to the highest ethical standards. This highlights the CII’s ability to lead industry change. www.cii.co.uk/aldermanburydeclaration
The Retail Distribution Review: we have played a key role in shaping the Financial Services Authority’s (UK Regulator) proposals on raising standards of financial advice. We have been able to build a positive consensus across financial advice for our plans. www.cii.co.uk/rdr & www.thepfs.org/rdr
Discover Risk: we are leading the way in promoting careers in insurance and financial services, so as to attract the best talent into our industry. Our new Discover Risk campaign aims to shatter the popular misconception that insurance is "dull" and show young people and career changes what a career in insurance has to offer. www.discoverrisk.co.uk
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