New insurance minister responds to regulation demands in first speech to brokers

City minister Emma Reynolds has backed Biba’s calls for more proportionate regulation in her first speech to brokers.

Reynolds was announced as the new economic secretary to the Treasury on Tuesday evening (14 January 2025) after predecessor Tulip Siddiq resigned.

Despite the late change, the new minister made an appearance at the launch of Biba’s 2025 manifesto in Parliament a day later.

Entitled Partnering to deliver value, the manifesto is calling for more proportionate regulation for brokers, with it highlighting a new six-point plan to help achieve this.

The plan calls for the removal of unnecessary FCA rules now Consumer Duty is in place, reform of the product value/fair value assessment requirements, reducing the scope of the Consumer Duty by removing larger commercial clients, streamlining reporting requirements, speeding up authorisations and the need for international comparison metrics for the regulator.

Biba believes that improvements can reduce the burden on firms and achieve a regulatory approach that supports the government’s international competitiveness and growth objective.

Regulation pledge

In her new role, Reynolds will be responsible for financial services policy, reform and regulation, including insurance markets.

During her speech to brokers at the manifesto launch, she said that she knew regulation was an “issue very close to all of your hearts”.

She added: “We all agree it’s important to have strong and effective regulation, but it must be proportionate and it must not hinder growth and competitiveness of individual firms and the sector as a whole.

“The financial regulators now have a secondary objective to promote growth and competitiveness, something that there was cross-party agreement on during the passage of the rather large FSMA [Financial Services and Markets Act] and I am very eager to talk to you about how you think that’s going.”

Reynolds also said that the government had continued work to deliver regulatory reforms “that help enhance the competitiveness of the insurance sector”.

“We finalised reforms to Solvency Two – the full new regime came into force at the beginning of the year – and these reforms have already freed up billions for general and life insurance firms and should allow insurance firms to operate more efficiently, better serving customers.”

Other talking points

Within the manifesto, there are also issues identified for the first time this year, which include differential pricing, permitted insurance payments under the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act, participation in the Motor Insurance Taskforce and premium finance.

Flooding, cyber insurance, skills, access to insurance and capacity challenges are also spoken about.

Graeme Trudgill, chief executive at Biba, said: “We know that our issues and the importance of insurance brokers have been recognised by government, with financial services being one of the eight priorities in its new industrial strategy.

“We have enjoyed an extensive collaborative approach with the regulator during the last year and there is an opportunity to achieve positive outcomes.

“The value that brokers provide to clients is so important and this is recognised through the amount of support we’ve received for what we’re doing.”