UK insurance sector is strong because of regulation – FCA’s Matt Brewis

The UK insurance sector “is a strong place to do business because we have strong, stable underpinning financial regulation”.

That was according to Matt Brewis, the FCA’s director of insurance, who spoke this morning (27 February 2025) at the ABI’s annual conference.

Speaking during a plenary session entitled Growing pains – how regulators and industry can work together to address challenges to growth and competitiveness, Brewis added that regulation was “one of the key components of why the UK is an attractive place to do business”.

However, he specified: “But we need to ensure that [regulation] isn’t stifling new opportunities and growth.”

The FCA’s secondary competitiveness objective, which was adopted as part of the 2023 Financial Services and Markets Act, requires it to consider how regulation supports the international competitiveness of the sector alongside its primary objective of consumer protection and market integrity.

Balanced and proportionate

Brewis said that the FCA’s primary objectives remained the organisation’s focus, but said that it was increasingly looking to balance this with streamlining of rules and the removal of duplication in requirements for firms.

During the session at the ABI’s conference, a live poll was run for the audience to vote on what regulators should do to most improve the UK’s competitiveness. Nearly half of all respondents (46%) said the best move would be for regulators to engage with their sectors better and earlier.

Another 33% said that regulators should review their requirements for firms.

Brewis commented: “We’re keen to do some things that we’ve heard from the industry will help them, where our rules haven’t worked quite as well as we originally envisaged or haven’t been interpreted in quite the way we originally intended.”

These moves have included recent calls for input from the industry on what rules can be stripped out from regulatory requirements because they are now covered by Consumer Duty.

Brewis also said that, this coming May, the FCA would consult with the industry on the fair value assessment process, to determine whether the requirement to complete these needed to remain annual, or whether it could be amended.

He finished: “Regulation is a good thing when it’s proportionate and we need to careful that having a stable environment for the UK economy that attracts business is not stifling – and we need to get that balance right.”