The one-day, London-based conference will kick-start with a detailed discussion on regulation
BrokerFest 2023: Matt Brewis, director of general insurance and conduct specialists at the FCA, and Michael Sicsic, managing partner at regulation consultancy Sicsic Advisory, will be opening the conference agenda at Insurance Times’ annual BrokerFest event on 23 February 2023 with an all-encompassing discussion of the current regulatory landscape.
Following a welcome speech from Insurance Times editor and plenary session chair Katie Scott, Brewis and Sicsic will field questions covering an array of regulatory conversation points in a 25-minute session entitled What can brokers expect from the FCA and regulatory landscape in 2023?
In particular, Brewis will give delegates a lowdown on the FCA’s regulatory priorities for 2023, as well as talk through its most recent ‘Dear CEO’ letter on the subject of Consumer Duty implementation – this was published on 3 February 2023 and was, in part, targeted at the general insurance market.
The letter contains both positive and negative feedback on firms’ implementation plans, which had to be submitted to the regulator by October 2022 ahead of the principal becoming effective this July.
Key talking points
The session will also touch upon fair value assessments, which many brokers have reported as being extremely time consuming. Sicsic questions whether further guidance around this metric is incoming or not.
A further regulatory bone of contention for brokers has been the volume of surveys issued by the FCA in recent years.
Brewis, however, has confirmed that the regulator is consulting on making its financial resilience survey a permanent, annual fixture due to the resultant insights being “pretty useful”. The panellists will therefore discuss the possible impact of this additional admin on brokers.
Brewis and Sicsic will also share their views on trade body Biba’s 2023 manifesto, which was published on 24 January 2023.
The document contained a chapter entitled A broking sector that has proportionate regulation is best positioned to support UK growth, which outlined measures to reduce the cost of regulation on broking firms.
Other topics of debate between Brewis and Sicsic will be financial resilience – an area Sicsic believes is an “important topic people tend to forget” – as well as the usage of premium finance by brokers.
Brokers can attend BrokerFest 2023 – held at Etc.venues St Paul’s on 23 February 2023 – for free. Click here to register your attendance.
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