Biba is right to lead the charge against more regulation
Biba chief executive Eric Galbraith opened this year’s conference with a call to arms: he told the delegates that together they could find a market solution which would stop the FSA resorting to new regulation.
Let’s hope he’s right. The FSA has set out six outcomes it wants to see in the UK commercial insurance market, all centred around greater transparency and fairness for the customer. It has also laid out three different ways of achieving these: through new regulation, tougher enforcement of the existing regulation, or a market-led solution. But the market cynics believe that it this is lip service: that FSA chief executive Hector Sants and his staff are determined to introduce more regulation, no matter what the result of the consultation.
Galbraith and Biba disagree. They believe that if the market stands up as one and declares that it is willing to offer consumers greater transparency, the FSA will embrace it. Perhaps the FSA would secretly be believed – after all, it is committed to “light touch” regulation.
As the June deadline for the consultation approaches, the time for cynicism comes to an end. To borrow Galbraith’s words, the insurance market is “under valued and over regulated”. Now, it has one chance to change that.
