Overview
Insurers should develop, implement and action an effective stress testing programme. Stress testing should assess their ability to meet capital an liquidity requirements in stressed conditions, as a key component of effective risk management. All firms should undertake relevant analysis, equal to the nature, scale and complexity of their business.
The PRA also expects insurance firms to apply reverse stress testing as part of their own risk and solvency assessment (ORSA) process, to continuously assess their overall solvency needs for their insurance specific risk profile.
Insurance stress test (IST)
The PRA also runs its own stress tests on a periodic basis for a number of insurance firms.
These exercises assess the financial resilience of the life and general insurance sector in severe but plausible common scenarios, tailored to the vulnerabilities of the sector. The participants for the exercises are selected on the basis of expected significant exposure to one or more of the proposed scenarios.
LIST 2028
The 2025 Life Insurance Stress Test (LIST 2025) was an important milestone for the PRA in assessing and explaining the resilience of UK life insurers’ financial positions under Solvency UK, using a combination of firm-specific and aggregate sector disclosures for the first time. The PRA remains committed to regular life insurance stress testing exercises as part of its ongoing supervision of the life insurance sector, building on the approach taken within LIST 2025.
The PRA will engage with stakeholders during 2026 to reflect on any lessons learned from LIST 2025 and to use this feedback to inform the design and set-up of the next life insurance stress testing exercise. This stakeholder engagement will include discussions with participating firms and wider users of its stress testing disclosures. This will help inform how best to build on the approach taken during LIST 2025, including to respond to any simplifications or limitations within LIST 2025, or to reflect how sector risks might evolve.
The PRA intends to launch the next LIST exercise in January 2028. The PRA expects to provide further details in 2026 Q4, including on any changes in the scope or methodology of the exercise, and confirmation of likely firms in scope.
Dynamic General Insurance Stress Test (DyGIST) 2026
The Bank of England launched the Dynamic General Insurance Stress Test (DyGIST) in May 2026. DyGIST represents a novel approach to general insurance stress testing, introducing a dynamic, scenario based simulation designed to assess how firms respond to a sequence of adverse events in real time.
Update on the Dynamic General Insurance Stress Test
The 2026 exercise included a live simulation phase during May 2026, in which participating firms responded to evolving stress scenarios. The Bank is now analysing firm submissions and drawing out sector wide insights.
Findings from the exercise will be published at an aggregate level later in 2026.
Related publications
• Update on the 2026 Dynamic General Insurance Stress Test (DyGIST) (July 2025)
• Update on the Dynamic General Insurance Stress Test (December 2024)
• Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) statement on the design of the dynamic general insurance stress test (DyGIST) 2025 (July 2024)
• PRA statement on the dynamic general insurance stress test in 2025 (October 2023)
LIST 2025
On Monday 24 November 2025, we published individual insurer results for Life Insurance Stress Test (LIST) 2025. This follows the publication of the sector-level results on 17 November 2025.
On Monday 17 November 2025, the PRA published sector-level findings for Life Insurance Stress Test (LIST) 2025. This is the first exercise conducted under the new Solvency UK regime.
On Thursday 16 January 2025, the PRA published final instructions, templates and scenarios for the LIST 2025 exercise.
- Life Insurance Stress Test 2025 – Launch Letter (PDF)
- Life Insurance Stress Test 2025 - Scenario Specification, Guidelines and Instructions (PDF)
- Life Insurance Stress Test 2025 – Quantitative Template (XLSX)
- Data Dictionary (XLSX)
- Results and Basis of Preparation Report (PDF)
On 10 July 2024, the PRA published Approach to LIST 2025 as well as a letter requesting technical input from the firms on the proposed scenario specifications, guidelines and instructions.
- Life Insurance Stress Test 2025 request for technical input cover letter to firms (pdf)
- Approach to Life Insurance Stress Test 2025 (pdf)
IST 2022
Stress testing - Insurers
On Monday 23 January 2023, we published the Insurance Stress Test 2022 letter. This letter sets out our findings on sector resilience and provides thematic observations that support improvements in risk management.