The UK's financial watchdog doesn't often put a number on its own performance. This week, giving evidence to peers, it did.
Appearing before the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee yesterday as part of its inquiry into regulation of the consumer insurance market, David Geale the Financial Conduct Authority's executive director of consumers, payments and competition was asked how effective he thought the regulator had been. His answer: "six or seven out of 10."
That's a mark from a regulator that wants credit for the work already done, while conceding the job isn't finished.
Geale backed the score up with a specific example: the FCA's effort to help people with pre-existing medical conditions get travel cover, a problem that's dogged the market for years, with some travellers quoted very high premiums or refused cover outright because of a health condition.
Since 2021, firms that can't offer suitable cover to someone with a medical condition have had to point them towards a directory of specialist insurers rather than simply turning them away. Geale told the committee this signposting requirement has helped shift around 21,000 additional policies to people who might otherwise have gone without.
That 21,000 figure is the same estimate the FCA reached in its own post-implementation review of the signposting rules, which described the intervention's impact as "positive, albeit lower than we expected." Geale was citing the regulator's own prior research to answer the committee's question.
That comparison matters. BIBA's Travel Medical Directory has now handled more than 400,000 enquiries since the FCA recognised it as a signposting solution, according to Insurance Business's earlier reporting on the milestone - a figure that dwarfs the 21,000 policies the FCA credits to the intervention. BIBA chief executive Graeme Trudgill has described the directory's growth as evidence it is "making to consumers who may otherwise struggle to find suitable cover."
Even so, the gap between enquiries and completed sales suggests a large number of people are still reaching the directory without coming away with cover.
There's a second factor for brokers to flag with clients: the premium threshold that triggers a mandatory referral to the directory doubled from £100 to £200 in January 2026. Fewer consumers will now be automatically signposted when a medical condition pushes up their premium. The FCA has said it will review that threshold every five years in line with inflation, but for now it narrows the safety net just as the regulator is citing the policy's success.
Geale didn't claim the FCA's work on home and travel insurance was finished when pressed by the committee, chaired by Baroness Noakes.
"We know what the issues are," he told peers. "We've set out what our priorities will be, but we're not all the way yet." Reaching the "six to seven out of 10 mark," he said, reflected work still in progress, and outcomes - not activity - were what mattered.
It's worth noting some ambiguity here: separate reporting on the same hearing has described the six-or-seven score as Geale's answer to a broader question about the FCA's effectiveness as a watchdog overall, rather than one specific to travel and home insurance. The distinction is worth checking against the committee transcript, since it changes how far the score should be read as a verdict on travel insurance specifically.
The same hearing covered ground well beyond travel cover. Chris Knight, the FCA's director of insurance, who appeared alongside Geale, told the committee that standard policy wording doesn't guarantee consumers actually understand what they're buying - a theme that runs through the regulator's wider Consumer Duty work.
The travel insurance evidence sat within a broader Lords inquiry examining how well home and travel insurance serves consumers, and other evidence given to the same committee has been less flattering to insurers. Peers have also heard analysis showing wide gaps in claims acceptance rates across home insurance providers, with contents and buildings cover trailing well behind the near-universal acceptance rates seen in motor insurance.
For brokers, none of this changes what good practice already looks like: clear signposting journeys, accurate documentation and evidence that customers with medical conditions are getting fair value under the Consumer Duty. The FCA has flagged claims handling, consumer understanding and access to cover for higher-risk customers as priorities running through 2026, and it continues to say it would rather rely on Consumer Duty outcomes than write new prescriptive rules.
A six or seven out of 10 isn't a verdict. It's a regulator saying the work continues - and for anyone selling travel cover to a client with a medical condition, that work isn't over either.
