Just three years after a debacle that saw small independent insurance brokers upset a carefully crafted vote to unite New Zealand’s two broker associations, they’re close to trying again. But this time they’re being subtle about it.

The Corporation of Insurance Brokers of New Zealand (CIBNZ) and Independent Insurance Brokers Association (IIBA) are moving slowly and carefully into a new organisation that will eventually be known as the Insurance Brokers Association of New Zealand (IBANZ). The two separate memberships will remain, but IIBA President Robert Martin says they will eventually merge under the new IBANZ banner.

“We already undertake a number of initiatives together, education and the [national] conference being just two of these,” he said. It’s understood some branch organisations are already holding joint “QPIB sessions”.

The two secretariats are close to moving in together in a new Auckland office, although CIBNZ President Gary Young says each will maintain its own identity “and continue to provide the focus on issues its members demand, but in an environment that provides for greater efficiencies and effectiveness”.

And the next unity vote? No one’s saying a word about that.