Industry Insights

How can ATA Carnets boost your revenue? As international travel opens back up across the world, it brings opportunities for business growth to the trade and logistics industry. When you add a complete ATA Carnet solution to your suite of services, you will help develop, grow, and retain clients. The ATA Carnet is a proven added value service that benefits many different types of clients. Prevent customs hassles, ease customs clearances, and save your clients money by providing ATA Carnet document preparation. You are providing an important service, and you can make additional income from the document preparation. That’s added […]

Roanoke Insurance Group, Inc.  is proud to announce the election of Colleen Clarke, Vice President of Surety & Trade Relations, to the Board of Governors for the American Association of Exporters and Importers (AAEI). Clarke serves as co-chair of the AAEI Customs Committee and continues her industry leadership by advising members on the facilitation of lawful trade. Members of the AAEI organization will benefit from Clarke’s expertise in customs and government trade topics as well as her past experience in assisting importers and customs brokers through surety bond issues of all kinds. This appointment further acknowledges Roanoke’s ongoing commitment to […]

What Is CARM? CARM is a multi-year initiative implemented by Canada Border Services Agency  (CBSA). CARM stands for CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management and is intended to modernize and streamline the process of imports into Canada. Under CARM, importers will need to secure and post their own import bond in order to participate in the Release Prior to Payment Privilege (RPP). This is a significant change that impacts importers and customs brokers. Prior to CARM, customs brokers were allowed to extend use of their own customs bond to any importer. CARM Customs Bond Requirement Details CARM Phase 0  went into […]

When ransomware strikes, business stops. You may be in the middle of writing an email or arranging a shipment or paying a bill when your familiar screen disappears and is replaced by an ultimatum: pay up or lose your data forever. A typical ransomware screen might inform you that your system’s data has been encrypted and to get the key to unlock it, you need to pay a ransom – usually in the form of bitcoin. Ransomware notices will also include a timeframe to pay, maybe in the form of a clock counting down to the second that your payment […]

On March 17, 2021, Roanoke announced a major milestone that positively impacts our customers, our business and our team. We issued a press release that proudly announced the opening of a new Canadian company headquartered in Toronto, ON. The new organization, Roanoke Insurance Group Canada, Inc., part of Munich Re Specialty Group, N.A., leads our expansion into Canada. RIG CA is a retail and wholesale broker representing several top-rated insurance and surety bond companies. The new organization is led by one of Roanoke’s own industry veterans, Glenn Patton. He will serve as Managing Director of the Canadian operation. “I am […]

  The Purpose of the Customs Bond Risk Assessment Why does a surety underwriter choose to to review the customs bond principal’s financial position? Because the bond represents a financial risk to the surety. The customs bond is a three-party contract between the surety company, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the importer who is the principal on the bond. It is the principal’s responsibility to pay CBP all duties, taxes, and fees on entries made, and the bond is a guarantee that, if the principal can’t or for some reason doesn’t pay the duties, taxes, and fees on […]