Welcome to the UKGI weekly regulation update service for Aviva ABC brokers

Context

The FCA has published a product sales data dashboard in relation to pure protection contracts, covering the calendar year of 2025.  The FCA has also updated its Interpreting the Data web page (part of the PSD suite of web pages) to include the links to the dashboard, and to an Excel table format of the data, and a Product Sales Data Glossary.

Key points to note and next actions

• The data can be viewed as being grouped by:
  • advised or non-advised sales,
  • the number of provider and non-provider sales by product type; or
  • the number of sales by product type.
• All the above grouping categories have sub-category data, and all the data is split quarterly.
• The data is correct as of 28 August 2026. Due to a combination of data resubmissions and adjustments, the data is not comparable to data within previous PSD publications.
• During 2025, 43 firms provided pure protection contracts PSD to the FCA.
  
  In relation to the data:
• PSD does not include all data on transactions made through fund supermarkets and nominee accounts (such as those used in platforms).
• PSD only captures new sales. Transfers, alterations, top up premiums (on existing policies), increments and renewals are generally not included.
• Sales to retail clients or consumers made by the following types of firms are required to submit pure protection contracts PSD:
  • insurers
  • managers of authorised alternative investment funds (AIF) or undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) schemes
  • operators of an investment trust savings scheme, or a personal pension scheme
  • a person who issues or manages the relevant assets of the issuer of a structured capital-at-risk product

Context

The FCA has updated its Pure Protection Market Study MS24/1.5 web page to include a list of questions aimed at firms who wish to apply (or who have applied) to join the proposed FCA ‘closing the protection gap’ TechSprint.

Key points to note and next actions

• There are eleven questions, with some being broken down into parts.
• The questions cover issues including a brief description of your organisation’s involvement in the insurance market and the products it offers in scope of the pure protection market study.
• Expressions of interest in the TechSprint are invited by 13 November 2026. The FCA will confirm by the end of 2026 whether the TechSprint will proceed. Further details are in Chapter 3 of the Final Report.  If your firm is submitting an expression of interest, please include a response to the ‘Questions for TechSprint applicants’ below regarding your access to relevant data and areas of interest.

Context

The FCA has published its latest quarterly Authorisations Division operating service metrics data, to provide transparency of the Authorisations Division’s performance.  This first publication of operating service metrics for the 2026/27 financial year, including the voluntary targets where they apply, shows 7 metrics are green, 2 amber and 3 red for Q1.

Key points to note and next actions

• Across all published metrics, 97.9% of cases were determined within the applicable deadline during Q1 2026/27, up from 97.5% in Q4 2025/26.
• This quarter, the FCA has expanded its reporting to include Adjacent Variations of Permission.  This category, which is subject to a voluntary target of determining complete applications within 3 months and incomplete applications within 6 months, achieved 94.2% (amber) performance in its first reported quarter.
• The areas where the FCA did not meet its targets were:
  • New Firm Authorisations,
  • Adjacent Variations of Permission,
  • 3/4MLD and 5MLD; and
  • Payment Services & E-Money Authorisations.
• In these areas, the breaches resulted from a combination of operational challenges, applications needing greater scrutiny, and the tighter deadlines the FCA is working towards.
• The results continue to reflect the more ambitious standards the FCA has introduced. By reducing target processing times for certain application types, the FCA has deliberately raised the bar for performance, meaning published results may show greater challenge against targets despite continued strong operational delivery.

Context

The FCA has announced an increase in firms’ confidence, satisfaction and trust in the FCA, as it publishes the FCA Practitioner Panel 2026 survey results.  The results are accompanied by a key findings summary and a ‘methodological note’.  The annual survey of regulated firms provides valuable insights into how firms think the FCA is performing.

Key points to note and next actions

• The latest survey shows 79% of firms are highly satisfied with their relationship with the FCA, up from 74% last year.
• The proportion of firms rating the FCA as a highly effective regulator also increased from 69% to 76%, while 75% reported high levels of trust.
• Firms were most confident in the FCA’s work to protect consumers (87%), ensure markets work well (85%) and enhance the integrity of the UK financial system (85%).
• There was a 27-percentage point increase in firms’ understanding of the Secondary International Competitiveness and Growth Objective and a 25-percentage point increase in confidence in the FCA’s delivery of it.
• The FCA took on board feedback from last year’s survey and provided further guidance to help firms embed the Consumer Duty. This year, 88% of firms say they understand what the FCA expects on supporting consumers and embedding the Duty.
• The findings also provide valuable insight into where firms would like to see further progress, including on regulatory burden. The FCA is already simplifying reporting by removing outdated or duplicated data returns for 90% of firms.

Context

The FCA has updated the details of its future priorities on its Consumer Duty requirements review web page. 

Key points to note and next actions

The ‘future priorities’ section of the web page is broken into four areas:

• Reviewing the foundations (e.g., a review of core definitions, a review of the application of Consumer Duty to non-UK customers, phase 2 of the review of the SM&CR).
• Future-proofing disclosure (e.g., the review of consumer credit advertising rules).
• Reducing the administrative burden (e.g., changes to the rules and guidance relating to distribution chains).
• Streamlining requirements (e.g., targeted clarifications of Handbook materials).

Context

The FCA has published a blog by Stephen Braviner Roman, FCA General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer, looking at how it interacts with whistleblowers.  The FCA states that it is vital people feel confident coming to it with concerns, and that it is grateful so many do (with the number of whistleblowing reports increasing 22% last year).

Key points to note and next actions

• Following the death of a whistleblower with whom the FCA had been in contact over many years, the FCA acknowledges the personal stress of those situations, and that dealing with an official body like the FCA can be – and for many, is – significant.
• The blog states that many FCA colleagues who are in contact with whistleblowers and vulnerable individuals always aim to treat them as the people they are – with empathy and professionalism, not simply cases to be managed.
• To build greater confidence, the FCA is sharing more information with whistleblowers about the action it takes. It provided feedback on each of the 1,252 whistleblowing reports it closed last year.
• The FCA has asked Lea Paterson, who has just joined the FCA Board as an independent non-executive director, to review how the FCA interacted with Mr Andriesz, the deceased whistleblower.

Context

The ABI has announced that insurance bodies representing Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand gathered in London to announce the formation of the Four Nations Insurance Alliance, established to confront the rising risks threatening economic resilience across these four nations.  Together, the Insurance Council of Australia, the ABI, Insurance Bureau of Canada and the Insurance Council of New Zealand represent insurers writing around USD $200 billion in premiums annually.

Key points to note and next actions

• The partnership has been established in response to common problems that have been growing across the four economies, including climate risk, persistent inflation, regulatory cost, premium affordability, and a growing protection gap.
• Additionally, emerging risks, including cyber threats and greater geopolitical instability, are challenging insurers and the vital economic and financial system role they play.
• Insurance is critical economic infrastructure in all four nations; keeping cover sustainable and affordable depends on partnership across industry, government and borders.
• Under the partnership, the four trade insurance bodies will share evidence on what works, spanning public-private partnerships, hazard data, resilience investment, regulation and emerging risks including cyber and artificial intelligence, with the intent of turning lessons from one jurisdiction into practical reforms in another.
• The launch takes place in London alongside a bipartisan Australian insurance delegation examining how governments and insurers can drive down underlying risk and keep protection available as the risk environment evolves.

Context

An ABI press release has stated that fraudsters are targeting bigger payouts.  The latest data from the ABI reveals that insurers detect £1.34bn worth of fraudulent claims in 2025, a 14% increase on the £1.18 billion detected the previous year.

Key points to note and next actions

• Cracking down on insurance fraud remains a top priority for the industry.
• While the number of detected fraudulent claims fell slightly to 93,900 cases, down 2.7% on 2024, the value of fraudulent activity continued to rise sharply – illustrating its growing scale and sophistication.
• The average value of a fraudulent claim reached £14,300 last year – the second-highest level on record, just below the peak of £14,600 recorded in 2022.
• Motor insurance remained the area where insurers identified the highest level of claims fraud, accounting for 55% of all detected cases.
• Property insurance showed a similar year-on-year pattern. The number of detected fraudulent claims fell by 6.2% to 17,700, while their total value rose by 3.4% to £201 million.
• Travel recorded the sharpest increase in volume. Detected cases rose 85% to 4,500, while value increased 16% to £8.6 million.