Product oversight and governance

Over the last three years, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has considerably increased its focus on product value, and as a result, implemented successive regulatory requirements. These requirements apply to both manufacturers and distributors of insurance products and for both commercial and personal lines of business.

The requirements place the onus on brokers’ and insurers’ internal operations and controls to ensure that the industry as a whole works towards providing customers with products and services that deliver fair value.

In order to ensure compliance with the regulation and the best outcomes for our customers, we’ve reviewed our internal procedures for product development, approval and assessment of value. We’re committed to working together with you in fulfilling these requirements, and the following information will provide useful detail on the steps we’re taking and how we can support you.

The Allianz approach to the Product Oversight and Governance Rules

We’ve been manufacturing insurance products for over 130 years, and already have well-established product oversight and governance controls in place. These provide assurance that all the activities undertaken throughout the lifecycle of a product are managed to appropriate standards.

Our product oversight and governance processes have been updated. Embracing the value -focussed regulatory developments, our product value assessment activity now requires completion every 12 months as opposed to the previous review timeframes.

Has Allianz carried out a PROD assessment on each available product?

We have, and continue to, undertake the product assessment and monitoring activity in accordance with the FCA’s requirements. Our product oversight and governance processes have been amended to ensure we’re aligned to the updated PROD (Product Intervention and Product Governance) Sourcebook requirements, which came into effect on 1 October 2021.

We’re currently initiating the additional product approval assessment activity on existing products in order to have these completed in good time prior to the FCA’s 30 September 2022 deadline.

Is Allianz a product manufacturer or a wholesale distributor for the products available?

We are a manufacturer of all the insurance products detailed with the broker pages of our website: www.allianz.co.uk/broker

Where can brokers obtain details of the target market and intended value of each product?

By visiting our broker website pages and navigating to each product page, you can find all the details necessary for insurance brokers to:

understand the insurance products we offer;
determine the identified target market for the insurance products;
identify any customer segment for whom the insurance product is not compatible, particularly in relation to their needs, characteristics and objectives;
carry out distribution activities for the relevant insurance products with the customer’s best interests at heart.

In particular, our Distributor Product Guides summarise the design, target market, intended value and distribution strategy of our individual products all in one document.

distributor product guides hub

What we may need from you

We will require information about the distribution activities undertaken for all our existing products, including details on any additional services or products provided as well as remuneration and service levels of all parties involved in the product distribution.

We’re already working with a number of brokers to establish a mutually beneficial and consistent approach to obtaining this information, while keeping abreast of any development that BIBA (the British Insurance Brokers’ Association) and the ABI (Association of British Insurers) have been progressing in this area.

Once we’ve identified the best approach, we’ll be reaching out to some of you for distribution chain information for our open market products. In the future, we may also request distribution chain information from all brokers with schemes or facilities with us, which fall outside of our open market product range.

We understand you may have additional questions as you also respond to the new regulatory requirements. Please check this page regularly as we’ll continue to provide the latest information to assist you further. In the meantime, please direct any further queries to your usual Allianz contact. Thank you for your assistance.

This promotional material is intended for insurance broker use only and no-one else should rely upon it.
It must not be made available to anyone other than the intended recipient, either in its original form or any reproduction.