My colleague David Bailey, the Executive Director for International Bank Supervision, spoke in January about the PRA’s approach to hosting international Banks in his speech in January on “responsible openness”, and the same principles apply in insurance.4 We have always attracted international insurers looking to establish operations in the UK to take advantage of concentration of skills, proximity of fellow insurers, and strong legal and regulatory systems. There have always been processes and rules in place to ensure that these entities are authorised and supervised appropriately. However, the end of passporting 1  Information on the Temporary Permissions Regime London Market Group report ‘London Matters 2020’ 3 Association of British Insurers ‘The State of the Market 2019’ 4 David Bailey Speech: ‘Responsible Openness’ 2  3  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  3  access from the EU has removed a route into the UK market for a huge number of insurers. To give some sense of scale, over 600 EU insurers held passporting permissions to write business in the UK in December 2020 (although not all passports were actually in use). Although only a third of those firms chose to enter the TPR, even this relatively more manageable number – 190, from 20 countries – represents a step change in the size and number of overseas insurers the PRA has responsibility for, with many of these insurers expected to apply for permanent authorisation. It is therefore only right to consider in detail our approach to these firms.
Both the regulator and industry play a role in ensuring quick delivery in these circumstances – industry through the prompt and accurate provision of information to enable us to assess applications, and ideally through the development of contingency plans ahead of time; and the regulator by ensuring that our process to consider applications is proportionate and efficient. That said, it’s only right that we continue to apply appropriate scrutiny to mitigate wider risks that the individual parties to transactions do not have the incentive to address. But we are no more interested in process for the sake of process than you are, and have already shown this through our past engagement with you and some recent authorisation decisions. More efficient processes that still deliver on our prudential objectives should be a positive for all sides. We intend to hold a round table discussion to explore this further with the industry. This will allow us to identify, in a collaborative spirit, regulatory and non-regulatory barriers to new capital and opportunities. The roundtable will consider:   Investment in existing Life and GI insurance entities wishing to expand;    New insurer authorisation process;    Insurance Linked Securities; and    Mobilisation regime for start-up insurers. The UK is open for business in the insurance sector, and we welcome applications from those seeking to invest and operate here. Our approach maximises the accessibility of the UK market whilst ensuring that broader safety and soundness objectives are not compromised and rules are consistent for everyone.