Context
The FCA believes that this firm may be providing financial services or products (arranging insurance contracts via an online ‘price searcher’ facility) in the UK without FCA authorisation.
Key points to note
- The website, at the time of writing, was live, and indicates that it will use personal data to “…provide the cheapest possible quote while being shared with both offline and online markets.”
- The website states that Broad Price Searcher is an online-based company and that it does not engage in any regulatory activities.
- The website appears to position the business as acting entirely for the customer, and that it receives no commission or fees from any broker or insurer and merely provides a number of quotes back to the customer for the customer to then go and make their own arrangements with insurers or brokers.
Next actions
The fact that the FCA has published this item on its News page, along with many other similar notices every day, indicates that the Regulator believes that the firm may well be carrying out regulated activity without authorisation. Firms should be aware of this business to avoid entering into any arrangements with it.