Bankers Professional Liability – BPL Insurance Definition

Bankers professional liability insurance (BPL) is protection for financial professionals and institutions against a customer's claims of wrongdoing, negligence and errors and omissions. The coverage helps to offset the expenses associated with lawsuits or judgments should a plaintiff win. The structure of BPL is as professional liability coverage explicitly targeted to the banking and financial services sector and is also known as errors and omissions insurance (E&O).

Professional financial services include specific fee-based services including real estate, notaries, depository, insurance and brokerage services.

The term “banker” is broad in the context of professional liability insurance. BPL insurance may cover escrow agents, tax planners, financial planners, estate planners and those in other positions within the financial industry. The coverage can include protection for those in the roles of directors and officers as well as covering full-time, part-time and seasonal workers. Further, the addition of BPL may be allowed on director and officer liability (D&O) insurance. In some cases, the protection provided by the policy may extend to the assets of spouses and domestic partners of those insured through BPL.

Bankers can purchase professional liability insurance policies tailored to the unique risks they face. For example, an investment banker would want coverage for underwriting, syndicating, securitizing and market-making activities. A lending institution would wish to cover its activities related to granting, committing to, restructuring or terminating loans and lines of credit.

Bankers professional liability insurance does not cover fraudulent or dishonest behavior, deliberate violations of the law or other criminal acts. It also does not include claims which are pending at the time of policy underwriting, nor does it cover libel, slander, defamation or invasion of privacy.

BPL insurance covers instances of and the allegation of financial wrongdoing. Events can be as unintentional as transposing numbers on a record or receipt to giving a client inaccurate or misleading advice. Lawsuits brought against a bank include breach of duty, misleading or incorrect statements or other mistake related to its deposit, brokerage, insurance, real estate, credit card or other services.

Some policies may allow financial entities to determine their representation through a particular legal defense team, should the need arise. In other cases, the insurance company will provide the legal defense. If the insurance provider determines that a settlement is preferable to a trial and the insured refuses the agreement, coverage for trial expenses may be limited to the proposed settlement amount.

A hypothetical example includes a customer who files a suit against a bank for honoring a fraudulent check or allowing a fraudulent wire transfer. The error allowed funds to be removed in error from the customer’s account.