Following its 2016 thematic review, FCA has undertaken follow up work and visited 20 principal firms, focusing on London market insurance intermediaries that had diversified and developed networks of appointed representatives (ARs).
The FCA found that issues in the thematic review existed in a wider sample of firms including:
- Widespread failings in principals’ oversight of their ARs. These included not giving adequate consideration to the impact of appointing ARs on their businesses, and not undertaking adequate due diligence prior to appointing ARs.
- Significant shortcomings with ARs involved in the sale of warranty insurance products and found numerous examples of potential mis-selling because customers had been given inadequate information.
As a consequence of the findings, FCA has commissioned two s166 skilled persons reports and is involved in on-going remediation and redress with the firms.