James Chapman

Head of Compliance Services

The last few years has seen a significant increase in regulatory reporting. Historically, the main focus for intermediary firms was a six monthly RegData( formerly‘ Gabriel’) return. Now intermediary firms must diarise, understand, complete and submit a series of returns punctuated throughout the year.

In more recent times, the FCA has committed to reforming the way it collects information from firms, being a smarter regulator and only collecting data which it deems absolutely to purse its objectives. The reality is that whilst some progress has been made, it will not have made a material difference, so far, to the reporting burden on firms.

On top of that, we are now dealing with a‘ data led’ regulator. Regulatory Reporting and RegData submissions will be central to this framework moving forward, ensuring firms operate within expected parameters and supporting the identification of‘ outliers’.

So, what is the latest with Regulatory Reporting, we’ ll start with the good news, then finish with the bad news.

REP022 General Insurance Pricing Attestation

Good news, this return has been‘ decommissioned’ and therefore does not need to be completed and will no longer appear in schedules at the start of each year. However existing insurance returns REP019 and REP021 will still require completion as before. The Regulator is currently considering removing certain parts of REP021, so we hope to be able bring you good news on that going forward too. These changes won’ t give you hours of your life back, but it is a start.

FIN073 Baseline Financial Resources Return

This is a return that has hugely frustrated our members since its introduction around the time of the Covid pandemic. The return itself collects financial information; however, the source of frustration is that the substance of this information is already materially submitted through existing returns. The FCA appears now to be listening and has proposed a reduction in the frequency of this return from quarterly to annual.

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