Illegal insurance brokers in FSA sights

Supervision and enforcement staff have embarked on a nationwide series of visits to general insurance brokers in order to reinforce the regulatory perimeter. 500 firms in Birmingham, Derby, Leicester and Nottingham have already been inspected, following leads from the industry, the public and from the FSA’s own database of firms that applied for authorisation but failed to complete the process. The exercise covers both primary brokers and secondary intermediaries, where the sale of insurance is ancillary to their main business; in this class, FSA has concentrated in the first instance on motor dealers, travel agents, high value retailers, property managers and removal and storage firms. A comprehensive review of the regulator’s findings on the general insurance perimeter will be published later in 2005.