Weight of regulatory change has stifled innovation, says BIBA

The weight of regulatory change that the insurance broking community has had to deal with over the last few years has resulted in a significant amount of resource being diverted away from developments to heighten customer experience, according to the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA).

In its response to HM Treasury’s consultation paper on draft innovation for financial services, BIBA has said that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) have burdened insurers and created barriers to innovation.

Graeme Trudgill, BIBA’s executive director, said that the recent Enterprise Act included measures to help reduce the regulatory burden on business and that he hoped that the FCA would be included in them.

“It appears often that regulators do not make best use of technology hampering fast moving firms that want to bring new products to market,” he said. “BIBA members are forward thinking and insurance brokers are often the biggest innovators in financial services but they need the support and the infrastructure to make developments customer ready.”

Mark Dugdale