YOUR COMPLIANCE MATTERS – RESULT OF THE FCA’S CORONAVIRUS BI TEST CASE
Relevance: All firms with Commercial clients.
Action Required: Ensure that you communicate effectively with clients affected by the case.
The FCA press release on this issue can be found here:
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/result-fca-business-interruption-test-case
We are not going to attempt to summarise a 160 page document but the full judgement can be found here:
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/bi-insurance-test-case-judgment.pdf
This can generally be seen as a win for the FCA, and many Policyholders with potential BI claims. Judgement was not found against the insurers in all cases (but in the majority).
Next steps
We understand that insurers have until the 22nd September to communicate with clients, that have claims affected by the judgement, in order to inform them of how this may affect the claim.
If these communications are sent to you, you will need to ensure that they are passed on to clients immediately.
Equally, you will need to respond to any queries received from clients and pass these on to insurers as needed.
Appeal process
Insurers may appeal the judgement, but this process will be handled as quickly as possible as there is an understandable urgency in resolving this issue.