GIM8290 - Reinsurance and other forms of risk transfer: financial reinsurance and alternative risk transfer (ART): FSA guidance

The regulatory (currently FSA) return has long required insurers to provide details of reinsurance arrangements entered into (GIM8360). The use of reinsurance and other forms of risk transfer is of interest to regulators as part of their responsibility to protect the interests of policyholders. See for example the requirements imposed on insurers in respect of the use of derivatives in insurance, in the General Prudential Sourcebook (GENPRU1.3).

The FSA’s Perimeter Guidance Manual (GIM3090) at PERG 6.7.22 states that a time and distance policy (GIM8220) will be a contract of insurance provided it falls within the description of such a contract elsewhere in PERG 6. Beyond this there is little regulatory guidance on the boundary between financial reinsurance which can be regarded as, in substance, a contract of insurance and that which is a derivative contract or something else. There is more about the FSA definition of insurance at GIM1070.