Introduction
All insurance companies, banks, insurance intermediaries, independent financial advisors and any others selling insurance products in the UK come under the regulatory body the FSA.
This includes anyone selling insurance, and the only real gap of travel insurance sold by travel agents, is being closed from 2009 as they too become regulated by the FSA.
FSA
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is an independent organisation responsible for regulating financial services in the UK.
The FSA's aim is to promote efficient, orderly and fair financial markets and help retail financial service consumers get a fair deal.
The FSA was set up by government. The government is responsible for the overall scope of the FSA’s regulatory activities and for its powers.
The FSA regulates most financial services markets, exchanges and firms. It sets the standards that they must meet and can take action against firms if they fail to meet the required standards.
FSCS
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is the UK's statutory fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms. They pay compensation if a firm is unable, or likely to be unable, to pay claims against it. In general this is when a firm has stopped trading, and has insufficient assets to meet claims, or is in insolvency. The service is free to consumers.
FSCS is an independent body set up by law. It was created under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) and became the single compensation scheme on 1 December 2001 when FSMA came into force, replacing former schemes. FSCS is funded by levies on authorised firms.
FSCS covers business conducted by firms authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the independent watchdog set up by government to regulate financial services in the UK and protect the rights of consumers. European firms (authorised by their home state regulator) that operate in the UK may also be covered.
There are limits to the protection available.
Companies on this site
There are some specialist companies on this site based outside the UK and not regulated by the FSA.
We identify such companies on the company profile page with:
This company is not authorised in the UK by the Financial Services Authority, so customers have no protection under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
However, some intermediaries and insurers regulated by the FSA, for a variety of reasons, do use insurance companies which themselves are not FSA regulated. The rules on consumer protection in those circumstances are not clear cut.
As recent events show, being regulated and authorised has not stopped even the biggest national or international insurance or banking groups from failing or being on the brink of collapse. Over theyears, very few insurance companies have failed in the UK. Being regulated does not prevent failure, the FSA is a regulator not a guarantor.
As we are an information site and not selling insurance, we do not in any way investigate, approve or regulate companies on this site.
If the FSA issues warnings or withdraws authorisationfrom any businesses on the site, or if they go into administration or liquidation, we will withdraw companies immediately.
At all times we retain the right to remove any company at our discretion without giving reasons.
