Key moments in 2017: Aviva's Phil Bayles

What was the biggest story of the year?
Difficult to choose between Ogden and Brexit but I’d choose Ogden as it had the biggest impact on the market and consumers this year.

Not many announcements move the insurance market in an instant but the Ogden announcement did - it was a fairly seismic event.

What was the most memorable event?
The Ogden announcement - the timing and the outcome was a surprise and the impact was immediate - lots of diaries were cleared that day to work through the implications and how best to respond.

What was the biggest challenge for brokers in 2017?
I think it is working out what technology solutions they need to adopt to stay competitive going forward - there is a huge range of innovations available but only a few will scale up and survive long term - picking winners with so many unknowns is exceptionally difficult.

What was the best thing to happen in insurance this year?
In some respects this sounds contradictory but the latest wave of consolidation is showing the true value of independent brokers - unlike the last wave when everyone was predicting the death of Independents, we now see a thriving sector with a sustainable distribution model which has huge support amongst the industry.