A great end to 2021 to see our article on safes for private clients and related European standards published in the Christmas edition of Irish Broker Magazine! There has been an overabundance of misinformation circulating in the safe supply and insurance industry in both Ireland and the UK regarding European standards for many years. As our director is someone who has helped write the European standards for safes, strongrooms, and physical data protection for the European Union, our hope is that we can clarify what should be expected by both brokers and clients regarding safe supply, installation, and integration standards in Europe.

If there is a single message in this article it would be that the key to protecting everyone’s interest and reducing risk is to simply ask for paperwork to back up any claims to accredited European certification for a safe or alarm integration device and always request a certificate of anchorage verifying that a safe has been anchored correctly. Inspect what you expect. 

Irish Broker Magazine is the monthly journal of Brokers Ireland. The magazine is circulated to all Registered Brokers, Insurance Companies, Trade Bodies, The Financial Regulator, The Central Bank, various Government Departments, and a select list of persons involved directly or indirectly with the Irish Insurance Industry.

We hope the article is useful and welcome any comments, observations or questions with which we can help. 

Link to Irish Broker Magazine article: https://irishbroker.ie/decembe...

About the author

Certified Safes Ireland™ in-house advisor on keeping jewellery, watch collections, goods, cash, documents and data, safe, secure, yet readily accessible, is Alan Donohoe Redd.

Alan Donohoe Redd is a member of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) Working Group responsible for writing European Standards for safes, strongrooms (vaults), secure cabinets and physical data protection for the European Union and a member of the U.S. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Standards Technical Panel TC72 covering standards for fire resistance of record protection devices. Alan is also a registered NATO supplier and a longstanding member of the European Security Systems Association. Alan has a vast range of experience spanning almost 40 years encompassing installation of safes, strongrooms, physical data protection, CCTV, alarms, access control, secure storage control systems and Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) specification, design and installation. 

An expert on standards and fraud issues related to secure storage in Europe, the UK and the use of asbestos in European safe and cabinet manufacturing, Alan has had articles related to these subjects published by The Law Society Gazette and Irish Broker Magazine, has forced retractions of multiple false claims related to secure storage offerings to the public and has been pivotal in having misleading standards and practices recognised and withdrawn in Ireland, the UK and at a European level.

Alan's seminars on safes, strongrooms and high net worth secure storage have been part of Continuing Professional Development for underwriters and insurers having been awarded CPD points by the Insurance Institute of Ireland and the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK).

 Alan's expertise has been relied on by:

N.A.T.O. Europe, The U.S. Air Force (Europe), The National Treasury Management Agency (Ireland), The Department Of Communications (NCSC Cyber Security) (Ireland), The Revenue Commissioners, Electricity Supply Board (Cyber Security) (Ireland), The Danish Defence Forces (Afghanistan), PayPal (Worldwide), Grant Thornton, The Insurance Institute of Ireland, The Royal College Of Surgeons, BFC Bank, Interxion Data Centres, The Private Security Authority, Isle of Man Gold Bullion, Brown Thomas, Bvlgari, Boodles, Druids Glen, The Shelbourne Hotel, and many others ....