Overview
The New Insurer Start-up Unit (NISU) is a joint initiative from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Any firm that wants to be an insurer (which includes the activities of effecting contracts of insurance or carrying out contracts of insurance) must be authorised to do this by the PRA. The PRA will only agree to authorise a firm if the FCA is also content for it to be authorised.
Firms that are EEA insurers, and that are seeking authorisation from the PRA as a third country branch, should refer to the ‘EEA bank and insurer branches’ section of the New firm authorisation webpage. The webpage also includes a section on the pre-application stage.
Download our guide to becoming an insurer in the UK for everything you need to know about starting a new insurer, from the pre-application phase to life after authorisation:
New Insurer Start-up Unit guide
The NISU is part of the regulators’ ongoing work to improve the authorisation process for prospective new insurers in the UK. We want the process, information and materials to be helpful for potential applicants so that we can have an effective and efficient way of working together, and lead to an improved quality of application when the time comes. It’s really important that we hear from you, the users of the NISU, about what is working well and what we can improve.
As our consideration of further developments relating to the authorisation of new insurers continues, we are also interested to hear views on perceived barriers to entry in the insurance industry and possible measures to address them. Please email NewInsurerStartupUnit@bankofengland.co.uk with your feedback and input.