Bancassurance in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This chapter provides a review of the development of bancassurance in the United Kingdom which is recent and has considerably evolved over the last decade. In the first section of this chapter, we review the major regulatory changes that have had an impact on the bancassurance trend. This includes the Financial Services Act (1986), which reshaped the regulation of investments products and has led to new regulatory requirements for the distribution of insurance. The section then examines the impact of the Building Societies Act (1986) on the development of bancassurance. In Section 3.2, we review the emergence and strategy of UK bancassurers. We start by analysing the two earliest bancassurance operations in the United Kingdom, those of TSB and Barclays, who set up life assurance operations in the 1960s. Then, we examine the wave of new bancassurance operations established in the 1980s. Finally, we examine the bancassurance operations, established in 1993 to 1995.