David Sparkes, the new compliance chief of the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (Biba), has vowed to fight for more ‘proportional regulation’.
After a month in the role Mr Sparkes revealed to Insurance Age that he has already told the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to tone down its focus on brokers.
He quoted the eight insurance broker reviews ongoing and warned that the trade body is aware there are “more in the pipeline”.
“Where is the proportional regulation that Martin Wheatley (the FCA chief executive) promised us at the Biba conference?” asked Sparkes.
“Wwhen you consider that the broker market is not high risk and the majority of failures we have seen are on the banking side.
“It’s the FCA’s first six months and they are keen to show they are different from the Financial Services Authority, but the point is they are focusing on an area that’s not high risk.”
Sparkes explained that he has had a meeting with Wheatley and FCA chairman designate John Griffith-Jones to outline his concerns.
“They came to Biba to hear the issues and Wheatley said they need to increase the communication between themselves, us and brokers.
“They said they would take on board our views. They recognise the difference between us and banks, it was a very positive meeting.”
Sparkes, who previously worked at the regulator for four years, on top of his compliance roles at Broker Network and Marsh, said his background stands him in good stead when it comes to dealing with the FCA.
“Getting up to speed has not been an issue,” he stated. “Compliance is my forte and this has helped me in my early days, it’s not easy for them to pull the wool over my eyes.”
He set out his key goal as ensuring that the “voice of the brokers is heard by the regulator”.
Sparkes listed the FCA’s thematic review of insurers’ claims processes, its conflict of interest review and ensuring that aggregator sites operate on a “level playing field” when it comes to information disclosure as key issues.
On the issue of broker fees paid towards the Financial Services Compensation Scheme he revealed that Wheatley hinted there may be “opportunities to review” brokers’ charges in the not-too-distant future.
