FCA deserves ‘credit’ for handling of recent MGA regulation decisions – Mike Keating

The FCA deserves “credit” for the way it has handled explaining its decision not to allow MGAs to act as sole manufacturers in comanufacturing relationships between insurers and MGAs.

This is according to Mike Keating, chief executive at the Managing General Agents’ Association (MGAA), who also said that the regulator has made positive steps towards reducing the regulatory burden on firms in such agreements.

Keating was speaking to Insurance Times at the association’s annual MGAA Broker Exchange, held on 12 March 2026 in London.

His comments came a day after the MGAA’s bi-monthly compliance insights panel, an event which the FCA recently committed to attend on a regular basis to provide updates and answer members’ questions.

In December 2025, the FCA published a policy statement announcing its decisions that only Lloyd’s MGAs could act as the lead manufacturer in comanufacturing agreements between insurers and MGAs and that no MGAs could act as sole manufacturers.

Keating explained that “it was clear that [the FCA] felt the insurer was the one who provides all the claims and holds the balance sheet and they felt that any failures should rest with the insurer”.

Regulatory landscape

The decision raised some concerns in the market that MGAs would have trouble navigating a regulatory landscape which placed a compliance burden on activities they were ultimately not the owners of. Keating, however, felt that the FCA had made clear and positive steps towards quelling such fears.

He said: “What was very clear and very encouraging from the regulator – and we will spread the message wider through our membership – was that where there’s comanufacturing between an insurer and an MGA, providing those two parties clearly articulate who’s responsible and who’s accountable for what activities, they don’t see the need for gold plating.

“That should be music to all stakeholders’ ears. For those who feel that in their relationship with capital they’re being asked to duplicate things, this is a clear message that if you’re articulating and writing down who’s responsible, we don’t expect any of those parties to have to replicate activities.”

He concluded: “It’s a credit to the regulators – the overarching gold plating, they’re very keen to proactively look to remove that.”