Supporting Your Business
FSA News Archive
Support for brokers approaching FSA
With FSA deadlines rapidly approaching, brokers have to prepare themselves, their staff and systems for the new regulatory regime. However, this is easier said than done.
With having to analyse their processes and management and control systems against FSA requirements, brokers might see this task as unachievable.
Simon Hood, Chief Executive of general insurance intermediary Select & Protect, agreed to talk to Norwich Union about his experience and shared with us some of his conclusions after tackling the rules head-on.
Even after breaking this huge task down into sizeable chunks and creating project teams to carefully define and analyse the current processes against the requirements, Simon admits it was still quite hard to work towards a compliant solution.
"It was pretty difficult because of the nature and sheer volume of the FSA regulation. One of the key areas is managing the potential overlaps and gaps between various areas, i.e. sales processes, management of the distribution channels, etc. There must no gaps at all or it's a disaster."
So where did Simon and his staff find help to accomplish all this on time? "Norwich Union offered us a great deal of support", says Simon. Indeed, there are three ways by which Norwich Union can offer its brokers some support regarding FSA regulation.
Select & Protect first had a meeting with a member of Norwich Union's compliance department. A meeting Simon qualifies as "very useful - a reality check to make sure we had a similar understanding of the requirements and that we were moving in the right direction".
Norwich Union then arranged a consultancy support package between Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Select & Protect, which comprised two main elements.
"It started with a day checking through our application. They gave a third party perspective and pointed out things that the FSA would not understand so that we could make the point much clearer. That, I believe, made our application a much better one than it might otherwise have been".
The next stage involves a day consultancy from Pricewaterhouse Coopers on an issue of the broker's choice. Select & Protect have not yet taken advantage of this strategic tool, as Simon is waiting for his organisation to be ready.
"Once we have a proposal, we'll call them and run it past them to make sure they believe that the process will be a compliant one."
With Norwich Union's help, Simon and his employees have managed to transform the insurmountable into a feasible task. Select & Protect is the living proof that getting ready for the FSA regime isn't impossible.
However, as Simon recommends: "Get stuck in. It's easy to decide you're too busy, but once you start and break the rules down, it is achievable. You just have to involve the relevant people across your organisation and get on with it. 14th January 2005 is only 7 months away."
