The first phase of the international service went live in early December, supplying UK-based (including Isle of Man and Channel Isles) financial intermediaries with a wide range of news, product information, research, forms, brochures and jurisdiction information for offshore business.

Additionally, a free website and directory service, IFA Window, is available to all UK IFAs to take advantage of the global reach of the Internet to attract and service clients world-wide, through their own personalised web sites.

The new service is available to all registered users of the AssureWeb trading platform, with registration completely free of charge at www.assureweb.co.uk

The new offshore service is initially supported by 13 major international product providers:

Ø BUPA International
Ø Clerical Medical
Ø Friends Provident International
Ø Norwich Union International
Ø Royal Skandia
Ø Royal & Sun Alliance International
Ø Scottish Amicable European
Ø Scottish Equitable International
Ø Scottish Life International
Ø Scottish Mutual International
Ø Scottish Provident International
Ø Scottish Widows International
Ø SunLife International

More supporting providers will be announced in the New Year.

With the increased interest in offshore business and the prospect of European Union legislation on cross-border selling, the opportunities for financial intermediaries are both exciting and challenging. In 1999, premium income generated by members of the Association of International Life Offices, of which all the new portal's 13 initial supporting product providers are members, amounted to Euros 8 billion. This compares with a total premium income of Euros 266 billion generated by the top ten European insurers alone last year.

David Stewart, group chief executive, explains:

" We already have over 14,000 financial advisers registered with us, many of whom conduct offshore business on behalf of their clients. Until now, they had no easy means of access to comprehensive online information on international products and services on one site. AssureWeb's offshore service will be a real asset to IFAs, providing valuable and up to date information, news and research material on hundreds of leading offshore products from the 13 providers that have committed to support the service at outset. We are already carrying out quotation, new business, policy servicing and commission transactions on our UK service and plan to offer these facilities on our international services in future phases"

"Once again, we are delighted to expand our portal offering to cater for the growing needs of financial intermediaries, empowering them to do more business, more efficiently. Following the roll-out of the initial offshore services, we look forward to introducing broader international services on AssureWeb in the near future with more providers and access by specialist offshore intermediaries in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. Indeed, in recent research we have carried out with IFAs across Europe, 95% stated they would welcome and use our proposed services"

Maryann Boland, e-Commerce Marketing Manager at Norwich Union International said:

"Norwich Union International is committed to the internet as an essential means of delivering premium service to the IFA community and we have invested extensively in developing our e-commerce platform.

"Therefore we are very excited to be part of the new international service from Assureweb and look forward to working closely with our partners in Assureweb to provide relevant and accessible information to IFAs."

Like its leading UK portal services, AssureWeb's new international services will be entirely free of charge for registered financial intermediaries.

For further information contact:

AssureSoft
David Stewart, Group Chief Executive 01242 211700
Nicola Mitchell, Sales & Marketing Director 01242 211740
Brian Sceats, Business Manager, International Services 0870 458 4561