We are so proud to be announced winners of the 5-star Brokerages Awards! To read the full and complete article over at Insurance Business Mag.
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“Statistics show that, collectively, general insurance brokers arrange over £74 billion of insurance each year,” said Sheldon Mills, executive director, consumers and competition, of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) at this year’s British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) Conference.
“That is 67% of all general insurance business and 81% of all commercial insurance business in the UK.”
Doing our part in this flourishing ecosystem, the 15 winners of the IBUK 5-Star Brokerages awards distinguished ourselves with impressive growth in revenue, profits and policies written, as well as number of clients and brokers. And we did it all despite COVID-19 lockdowns, labour uncertainties and regulatory burdens – not to mention Brexit.
Regulatory bombardment
Doing its best to maintain a market of high standards while advocating for consumers, the FCA launched a new three-year strategy in April. It’s focused on delivering results instead of processes and making more data-based decisions.
At the BIBA Conference, Mills explained that brokers play an important role in helping businesses and consumers get the insurance products they need to safeguard against unexpected financial losses and that the FCA wants to support competition, innovation and growth in the sector.
That aside, Georgiades sees the FCA as fostering a “bombardment of regulation.” While it aims to improve conduct and conditions for consumers and businesses, he says it tends to encourage consolation, reducing competition and increasing premiums.
“A lot of the FCA targets are to make products more suitable for consumers and businesses,” he adds, “and if people aren’t innovating, then they will be less suited and less bespoke.”
Georgiades and The Plan Group have struggled to deal with persistent FCA oversight. “As a business owner, rather than just sitting down and being able to focus on growth opportunities, we probably spend half our project time meeting those requirements.”
Meanwhile, Lloyd-John expresses discontent with domicile and post-Brexit issues, as well as contentious regulatory issues in the home and motor space. According to a report from the Resolution Foundation, the post-Brexit trade agreement with the EU will decrease real wages by 1.8% by the end of 2030 – a loss of £472 per worker per year on average.
Lloyd-John thinks that the FCA has the best intentions and posits that more emphasis should be on improving the way brokers and regulators interact. “The regulator’s ultimate ask is if you know something, do something about it,” he says. “Doing nothing is a big no-no in the regulator’s eyes.”
Georgiades agrees with most of Lloyd-John’s sentiment, saying the FCA has the right goal, but not the right way of achieving it. “If they were more proactive in terms of auditing – going out and meeting brokers, sitting down and getting a feel for the firm’s auditing – that would help,” he says. “And if they spent more time following up on complaints and then stating the case and issuing more high-profile rulings, brokers could then take a real, firm kind of guidance rather than kind of slightly bombarding us with the stuff that we have to interpret.”
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Talbot Jones Ltd is a family-run Chartered Insurance Broker specialising in Third Sector and Professional risks. Get in touch for free insurance advice, review or quotation.
Talbot Jones Ltd incorporates March Insurance Services, a Chartered Insurance Broker specialising in Agricultural and Hospitality Risks.
