On 22 September 2021, the PRA published a speech by its CEO, Sam Woods. The speech is entitled ‘Prudentist’.
In his speech Mr Woods sets out the PRA’s future work. He mentions that there are a number of priorities for the PRA to focus on including updating the PRA’s operating model to reflect changes to its role after Brexit, responding to climate change and reviewing the regulatory requirements for insurers.
Mr Woods also considers ease of exit and states that the PRA intends to do more in the coming years to increase confidence that firms can exit the market without disturbing it, in an orderly way and without having to rely on the backstop of an insolvency or resolution process. This will entail:
- Further developing the PRA’s approach to wind-down and run-off planning, so that it and the firms it supervises have the capabilities in place to execute a safe and orderly exit should they enter distress
- Building this in a proportionate way into business as usual supervisory activity and tools, potentially using skilled person reports where needed.
- Looking at whether there is scope to reform any aspects of the protection framework of the financial services compensation scheme to ensure that depositors and policyholders are appropriately protected in insolvency, and paid out in a timely fashion.
