Harnessing the Power of Insurance

Plus: Inflation, Market Stress, Payment for Order Flow

It’s not often you see a national leader take an active interest in obscure elements of financial services regulation. But Liz Truss, newly appointed prime minister of the UK, has done just that. On her campaign trail over the summer, she toured the country promising members of her party that she would reform “Solvency II”, a framework insurers use to model capital requirements. Her rival in the leadership contest, Rishi Sunak, seemed bemused. During one televised debate between the pair, he turned to the audience and asked, “Can anyone put their hands up… Does anyone know what Solvency II means?” Before any financial geeks in the crowd had a chance to respond, Truss shot back: “Rishi, it’s about enabling investment into towns like Stoke-on-Trent, that’s what it is about.”

Today, Liz Truss’s government unveiled a new growth plan. Among many other initiatives, it promises that “the government will bring forward an ambitious deregulatory package to unleash the potential of the UK financi…