Recommendation 21

There are also wider uncertainties within the advice market, including the provision of Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII). PIMFA told us that the availability of PII has become severely limited because insurers are struggling to accurately predict the risk of 58 C&AG’s Report, para 9, 2.5 59 Qq 83, 86 (27 April) 60 Written evidence submitted by PIMFA dated April 2022 61 Q 1 (27 April) 62 Letter from FCA to Committee dated 18 May 2022; Q 12 (13 June) 63 Q 52 (27 April) 64 Qq 39, 52 (27 April); Q 17 (13 June) 65 For example written evidence submitted by British Steel Adviser Group, dated April 2022, written evidence submitted by Burley Financial Services Ltd, dated April 2022 Investigation into the British Steel Pension Scheme 15 DB transfer advice, reducing the number of providers willing to provide cover.66 Similarly, the costs of insurance have risen significantly, increasing from an average of 1%–1.5% of turnover in 2015 to 3%–6% in 2021.67 The FCA is yet to define its expectations for the PII industry or fully consider its effects on the wider stability of pension transfer advice market, leaving the market in an uncertain position. It highlighted other areas of financial policy where greater clarity is needed in order to respond to emerging areas of consumer risk, such as the digitalisation of financial markets, including promotions of financial products and crypto asset investments.68 Capacity of the redress process