Bank of Queensland will stop offering insurance premium funding from next month. 

In a statement, the bank says it has “made the difficult decision to cease offering insurance premium funding products as we continue to simplify our business. We will work with our customers as they adjust to this change.”

A spokesperson told insuranceNEWS.com.au BOQ will stop the business on June 14.

In 2016, the bank paid $20 million for Centrepoint Alliance Premium Funding, which was rebranded to form a new division within BOQ Finance.

At that time, the business handled about 30,000 new loans annually. It funded $377 million of gross written premium for 420 insurance brokers in the year to June 2016.

The BOQ Finance website says its funding offer is for business insurance including motor, public liability, professional indemnity and industrial specialist risks, from $500 policies to multimillion-dollar corporate covers. 

PSC Insurance Brokers Tasmania managing principal Mark West says the market is robust even without BOQ.  

“It’s not surprising – they’re a bank and not a premium funder, and there are plenty of premium funders jostling for business,” he said. “Hunter can step in, Attvest and Arteva – they'll all be there to line up, so it’s not a problem, but it does reduce the competition.”

BOQ has been reshaping operations under its “strengthen, simplify, digitise and optimise” strategic pillars.

It converted all 114 of its owner-managed branches to corporate branches, and is “recycling capital from lower-returning assets to higher-returning specialist segments”.

CEO Patrick Allaway said last August the bank was “delivering a simpler, specialist BOQ” and “optimising margins”.