Alison Matthews

Alison has specialised in insurance law and regulation for over 25 years. Her practice involves advising UK and EEA insurers and intermediaries on a range of issues including most recently the implications of Brexit, the introduction of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime,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 Senior Managers and Certification Regime (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
• 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 Solvency II rules on group supervision, ring-fenced funds, contract boundaries, the matching adjustment, the treatment of reinsurance,governance and the raising of new regulatory capital
• 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 and regulatory compliance
• regulatory advice on issues related to FCA regulation of UK insurance intermediaries including the application of product governance rules, FCA proposals on price-walking, rules on selling bundled products, Appointed Representative arrangements
• a range of issues relating to the FSCS, including its jurisdictional scope