Lloyds: Law and Practice
5.
REGULATION OF THE LLOYD’S MARKET UNDER FSMA
REGULATION OF THE LLOYD’S MARKET UNDER FSMA
5.1
The Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) and subordinate legislation made under it by HM Treasury and the former Financial Services Authority have since 30 November 2001 provided a comprehensive, integrated regime for the regulation of the banking, securities and insurance industries in the UK.1 Securities, contracts and other financial products are alike referred to in the legislation as “investments”. Until FSMA the participants in the Lloyd’s market had been regulated by Lloyd’s itself with only minimal external statutory oversight. From an early stage in the drafting of the Financial Services and Markets Bill the government decided that Lloyd’s policyholders should have the benefit of a regulatory regime similar to that applying to insurance companies and that the FSA should have wide powers over Lloyd’s itself and over participants in the Lloyd’s market.2 The government’s primary concern would be the protection of policyholders against the risk that valid claims might not be paid, and that particular account should be taken of risks arising from poor underwriting, inadequate monitoring and control of underwriting risk, and concentrations of risk.