LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s markets watchdog said on Wednesday a review of wholesale insurance brokers uncovered no problems, a relief for an industry spending millions of pounds on Brexit.
The Financial Conduct Authority announced the review in November 2017, saying there were concerns about how large players place business to earn fatter fees.
“Overall, the FCA has not found evidence of significant levels of harm that merit the introduction of intrusive remedies,” the FCA said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This report is, therefore, not an interim report but a final report.”
The watchdog said it identified areas for improvement, including how brokers manage conflicts of interest, the information they disclose to customers, and contractual agreements between brokers and insurers which, in a small number of cases, have the potential to limit competition.
“This was a significant and in-depth analysis of a sizeable and complex market to determine whether clients were at risk of harm,” said Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s executive director for strategy and competition.
“Encouragingly, we found no evidence that they were but we found some areas with scope for improvement and we will work with the industry to ensure these are addressed.”
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Alexander Smith)
