sam woods : brave new world speech by mr sam woods, deputy governor for prudential regulation of the bank of england and chief executive of the prudential regulation authority ( pra ), at the association of british insurers, 16 march 2021. * * * thank you for the invitation to speak today, and for coming along to this session. although i can see nobody on my screen the abi assures me that an implausibly large number of leaders of the insurance industry are in fact present, and that some of you may even be listening to this speech. as a prudential regulator we oversee a large and vibrant insurance sector supplying vital financial services to the wider economy. i will not bore you with another list of the magnificent variety, size and importance of those services – that is the job of the abi. but safeguarding the stability of their supply is the whole point of our role. that role is about to change in two ways. first, the solvency ii review is well under way – i will come back to that. but i want to begin with the second change, which is more fundamental – the proposed reforms to the architecture of financial regulation as we enter the brave new world of post - brexit britain – and explain why we favour a shift towards more rule - making by the regulator, and the enhanced accountability that needs to come with that. the future regulatory framework : rules and statutes now you may be thinking : “ quelle surprise, the regulator wants to have more control over the rules! ” in fact, i can tell you that the pra has no pro - active desire to increase its responsibilities. we have enough on our plate already. it ’ s just that it seems clear that, for our market, putting the details in the regulator ’ s rules rather than in statute ( as the eu typically does ) is a better approach. i say better for our market, but in fact this is the norm in all major jurisdictions apart from the eu and switzerland. as a point of principle, it is consistent with the established model of an independent regulator taking time - consistent decisions in pursuit of long - term objectives given to it by parliament. this follows the same logic as the arrangements in this country and many others for setting monetary policy. and on a purely practical level, it ensures that rule - making is closely informed by the day - to - day risk assessments that we have to make as supervisors. this approach also helps ensure that rule -

meeting in september, 2013. i understand we have a session for country updates later today, so i will keep this brief. in the last two quarters, we have been able to accomplish a number of initiatives. the national financial literacy strategy for fiji has been endorsed by the government for implementation ; we hosted the inaugural national microfinance awards during the pacific microfinance week, which a number of you witnessed first - hand ; and we finalised the consumer protection pre - disclosure ( cppd ) template, which will be implemented by our licensed financial institutions in the coming quarter. colleagues, it gives me immense pride and joy to inform all of you that on the 28th february 2014, we successfully achieved our target of reaching 150, 000 unbanked fijians. this is a target we had initially set in november 2009 following our first stakeholder workshop and one which we made a part of our maya declaration in cancun in 2011. this goal would not have been achieved without the collaborative effort of all the stakeholders in fiji and we are sincerely grateful to them. while we have had some success, this does not in any way mean that the work has finished. in fact, this is only the first step in the longer journey that we committed to undertake. this is a great platform from which we will chart the next phase of development for financial inclusion in fiji. i would therefore like to announce that the bank, together with the national financial inclusion taskforce, is taking stock of all the financial inclusion initiatives undertaken in the country to date and we will use this information over the coming nine months to develop a new financial inclusion strategy for fiji that will run from 2015 to 2020. concluding remarks in closing, i thank you again for making it to denarau this week. i urge you to keep your focus on the goals you have set out to achieve. this meeting provides a great platform to take stock, share experiences, discuss issues concerning the region and challenges encountered, and identify opportunities to pursue to take our goals to another level. in a few days we will also be welcoming delegates from different parts of the world for the afi strategy peer learning working group meeting. let our small pacific countries be a good financial inclusion example of firm collaboration and achievement. last year when the bis central bankers ’ speeches reserve bank of fiji was awarded the inaugural maya declaration award, i could see the immense pride among all pacific member countries present and such achievements bring us closer together as a region. thank you for your continuous support and we