Alison Matthews

Alison has specialised in insurance law and regulation for over 25 years. Her practice involves advising insurers, reinsurers and intermediaries on a range of issues including most recently the implications of Brexit, the introduction of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR), Solvency II and the Insurance Distribution Directive.  She has worked with a number of mutual insurers and has provided regulatory advice on a range of issues relating to the conduct of with-profits business.

Alison is recommended for corporate and regulatory insurance work by the Legal 500.  Clients have commented that she “really knows her stuff”, “gives very detailed and a thorough regulatory advice” and has a “personable manner”.  She is the joint consulting editor of “A Practitioner’s Guide to Solvency II” (Sweet & Maxwell, 2016).

Recent experience includes:

• advice to insurers and intermediaries on implementation of the SMCR and on subsequent compliance with the rules
• advice to UK insurers and intermediaries on the implications of Brexit for the conduct of cross-border business and for group supervision, including the development and implementation of group restructurings and the application of on-shored EU regulation
• advice to EEA insurers on the implications of Brexit for their business, including options for the future conduct of business in the UK, the implications of entering the Temporary Permissions Regime and requirements for obtaining a UK authorisation
• advice on the application of the Solvency II group supervision regime (and, post-Brexit, the UK on-shored equivalent) to a number of UK and non-UK headquartered groups, including group governance requirements and the availability of "other methods" for supervision at worldwide group level
• advice on Solvency II rules on ring-fenced funds, contract boundaries, the matching adjustment, the treatment of reinsurance, and own funds
• advice to a number of captive insurance companies located outside the UK on the application of the UK insurance regulatory regime to their activities
• advice on issues relating to the Insurance Distribution Directive, including its jurisdictional scope and its application to a range of activities carried on by insurance intermediaries
• advice to a leading UK life mutual on a range of regulatory issues arising from its with-profits business
• advice on the application of client money rules, including in the context of transfers of business
• regulatory advice on insurance sector M&A transactions, including change in control applications, SMCR implications, Appointed Representative arrangements and regulatory compliance
• regulatory advice on issues related to FCA regulation of UK insurers and intermediaries including the application of product governance rules, new rules on price-walking and sales of bundled products, and the proposed introduction of a Consumer Duty
• a range of issues relating to the FSCS, including its jurisdictional scope