- Re Prudential Assurance Co Ltd: recasting of the principles to be applied on an application for sanctioning an insurance transfer under Part VII of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
The insurance business transfer regime under Part VII of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 plays an important role in the UK insurance industry. It is widely regarded as providing a stable mechanism by which UK insurers can transfer portfolios of insurance contracts to other insurers. Established in a long line of first instance cases starting with Re London Life Association Ltd [1989] Lexis Citation 1731, the principles applied by the courts in determining whether to sanction a transfer have been seen as clear (albeit increasingly elaborate). This has allowed insurers to be confident about when they can safely invoke this expensive process.
This was thrown into doubt by the decision of Snowden J in Re Prudential Assurance Co Ltd [2019] EWHC 2245 (Ch), [2019] All
