Britain’s new government regulator, the Financial Services Authority, is preparing new laws to regulate brokers – and has set itself a daunting schedule to make it happen. The FSA is taking over from the industry-financed self-regulatory body the General Insurance Standards Council. It has given itself until July to have draft legislation framed, with the final legislation ready for Parliament by October.

This will give brokers a small timeframe in which to make submissions, and the leading representative bodies are expected to object loudly.