The Financial Services and Markets Bill 2026-27 received its first reading in the House of Lords on 19 May 2026, the latest step in a recalibration of aspects of the UK's financial services regulatory framework.
The reforms are wide-ranging. Of particular relevance to the insurance industry, they span the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, where the government is pursuing a headline 50% reduction in administrative burden; the Financial Ombudsman Service, where longstanding tensions between FOS discretion and FCA regulatory standards are being addressed; and the Appointed Representatives framework, where concern about consumer detriment has prompted a further structural tightening of accountability.
Other changes are designed to update the UK's risk transformation regime by amending funding requirements for transformer vehicles used for transferring insurance risk to capital market investors, and by enabling protected cell companies to be used as a vehicle for underwriting insurance risk.
For further discussion of these aspects of the Bill, please click here.
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