FCA speaks on insurance

Sarah Pritchard spoke at the ABI annual conference on innovation, growth and trust in the insurance industry. She spoke of the various new types of regulatory support available, such as through the AI Lab, Sandboxes and the Scale-up unit. She said the FCA wants to see the numbers of applicants increase, because to date only 208 of the 3000 firms that have applied across the innovation pathways have been insurance-related – but of those that did apply, their success rate was better than average. She mentioned some of the creative insurance-related work that has come from the sandbox, including a new model for bike insurance.

She moved onto the importance of treating consumers fairly in the claims process and ensuring clear communications to test consumer understanding.

She said the FCA will continue to focus on good consumer outcomes in its 2026 work. It is already looking at MGAs and will generally look to encourage improvements in claims handling. And it will review products and services for indication of poor outcomes.

On pure protection, she noted the market mostly works well, yet over half of all adults do not have a protection product even though many would benefit from one. The FCA wants to look at that.

On the wholesale side, it is already working to remove unnecessary regulation in terms of Consumer Duty application and regulatory returns. It plans to consult on disapplying the Duty to overseas customers in Q2 2026.