A risk manager for a large US electric utility warned on Tuesday that if it ever gets to the point where brokers are not delivering value to his company, he will leave the business model behind.

Gary Meggs, director of Risk Management for Southern Company, one of the largest US investor-owned electric utility holding companies, was one of the speakers at the Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) symposium panel, ?Hurricane Spitzer ? Direct Hit or Glancing Blow??

Mr. Meggs pointed to the air travel industry as an example of what can happen. A few years ago, everyone booked their airline tickets through travel agents, but now the airlines have now completely bypassed that delivery method.

?Everybody needs to understand how profoundly things can change and how quickly,? he said. ?If I ever get to the point where I feel that we?re not getting value, we?re not being properly represented in the markets, I am fully ready, willing and able to go direct to the market and we will change the whole delivery model. There are a lot of others out there like me who will do that.?

Mr. Meggs was joined on the panel by Todd Jones, the North American Practice Leader for Willis? Executive Risks Practice and Thomas Ruggieri, founder and CEO of Advisen.

The trio agreed that in the aftermath of scandals such as Enron, self-regulation is sufficient.

?We are really moving towards an absolute zero tolerance for ethical misbehaviour. The bar has been raised so high. You see these chief execs do the perp walk,? Mr. Meggs said. ?When they go to the big house and you see the types of penalties where bad behaviour can wipe out your company that is going to be where self-regulation is.?

There was also agreement that the industry would not have addressed its problems without being spurred by outsiders.

?We were somewhat backwards in a haze believing everything was fine and the only way we could come out of that haze was to come at it very intensely and Eliot Spitzer is a very intense individual. Yes he went to far, but in this case regulators needed to go over the top to create real change,? Mr. Ruggieri said. ?Why couldn?t the industry solve its own problems? It is the classic alcoholic. You need to understand you have a problem or you can?t solve it. The industry didn?t think it had any problems.? Mr. Meggs said that he was concerned that the investigators had ?short-circuited due process?. He pointed to AIG?s Maurice (Hank) Greenberg as one person who had been called in to testify under subpoena before he really had the opportunity to review the situation.

?There has been a short-circuit of due process when you come in and threaten a company with criminal indictment and they know that is a death sentence,? he said adding that he is also concerned by Spitzer wannabes who view the investigation as a way to further their own political objectives.

Mr. Ruggieri said that brokerage firms will need to implement a placement process standardisation on how things are done so it can be made transparent to clients.

?The three major brokers as part of their settlements have entered into pretty rigid processes in regard to placement,? he said adding however that given that the companies have to many employees around the globe placing business by hand or via e-mail, it is hard to enforce standardisation. ?We are finally going to need to deal with the fact our business needs to be made somewhat electronic. I?m not saying it needs to be a cookie cutter business but that doesn?t mean that you can?t have standards in each.?

Mr. Jones added that the organisations including Willis must now figure out what business models will thrive and flourish in the new environment.

?As an industry this is our opportunity to shine. This is a chance to create relationships with buyers that are now exclusively transparent so you can all be on the same page in terms of what your goals and objectives are, what you are striving for without a feeling you are hiding something,? he said.