Prudential regulation

Prudential regulation rules require financial firms to hold sufficient capital and have adequate risk controls in place. Close supervision of firms ensures that we have a comprehensive overview of their activities so that we can step in if they are not being run in a safe and sound way or, in the case of insurers, if they are not protecting policyholders adequately.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) at the Bank of England is responsible for this prudential regulation and supervision of around 1,500 banks, building societies, credit unions, insurers and major investment firms.

Find out more about what the PRA does

PRA publications

Consultations papers, policy statements, supervisory statements and statements of policy can be viewed individually by following the links below. Policy statements are published on the same page as the accompanying consultation paper.

Latest prudential regulation news and publications

13 July 2018: We published final policy relating to a series of improvements to the implementation of Solvency II:

• PS18/18 and SS7/18 'Solvency II: Matching adjustment'
• PS19/18 and SS8/18 'Solvency II: Internal models - modelling of the matching adjustment'
• PS20/18 'Solvency II: Internal models update', including an update to SS12/16 'Solvency II: Changes to internal models used by UK insurance firms'
• SS17/16 ‘Solvency II: internal models – assessment, model change and the role of non-executive directors’ has been updated following PS19/18 and PS20/18. This includes a template and LOG file for Quarterly Model Change Reporting (QMC.01) available on Regulatory Reporting – insurance sector.

We also published a letter ‘Solvency II: Two and half years on’ to Chief Actuaries of life insurers from Sid Malik, Head of Division of the PRA Life Insurance and Pensions Risk Division. 

5 July 2018: The Bank of England, PRA and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a Discussion Paper ‘Building the UK financial sector’s operational resilience’. 

Please see the joint News Release, and the Discussion Paper, which includes a foreword from: Andrew Bailey, CEO of the FCA; Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor for Financial Stability; and Sam Woods, Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation and PRA CEO. 

6 June 2018: The Bank of England is consulting on a new messaging standard for UK payments. The major UK payments systems (CHAPS, Faster Payments, Bacs) are moving to the global messaging standard for payments, known as ‘ISO 20022’.

Find out more and participate in the consultation, please note the deadline for submissions is 18 July 2018.