iNED Forum: 2026 Regulatory and Legal Priorities

iNED FORUM – SEASON FOURTEEN

Join us for the second Forum of the 2026 Programme

“2026 Regulatory and Legal Priorities”

The last year has illustrated some of the fundamental challenges for the UK economy relating to growth, geopolitical risks and cyber events, alongside the potential threats and opportunities from AI.

Amidst this changing landscape, UK financial services regulators are seeking to balance their primary objectives with secondary growth objectives. Indeed, we have seen the introduction of a concierge service for international financial firms looking to expand their operations in the UK, reforms to enhance the attractiveness of UK Insurance Special Purpose Vehicles, a renewed focus on “outcomes” rather than new rules in certain respects and the importance of “culture” as an enabler. These have been accompanied, though, by new policy statements on non-financial misconduct and managing risks arising from climate change.

Developments are also expected to be wide ranging this year. May will see the launch the PRA’s first ever “live” dynamic stress testing exercise for the general insurance sector (DyGIST) to assess solvency/liquidity positions, operational resilience and crisis management at board and senior management level.

We will hear from Graham Handy (Partner, BDO) and Nicola Ball (Director, BDO) on PRA and FCA priorities, whilst Caroline Sandeman-Allen (Chief of Market Oversight) will provide the Lloyd’s regulatory perspective.

Finally, Liam Russell (General Counsel, CII) will take us through key legal and Companies Act considerations that insurance boards should be aware of.

 

Learning objectives:

· Awareness of how the PRA and FCA are currently balancing their primary and secondary objectives.

· Articulate key 2026:

o Priorities for PRA, FCA and Lloyd’s.

o Legal considerations for insurance boards.

· Principal areas of challenge by boards for executive management on the 2026 regulatory and legal agenda.

 

Speaker(s)

Nicola Ball
Financial Services Advisory Director - BDO

Nicola is a Director in BDO’s Financial Services Advisory team, leading on regulatory conduct and compliance matters across the insurance sector. She has over 18 years’ experience helping firms navigate regulatory change and deal with regulatory and compliance matters such as Consumer Duty and Operational Resilience.

Nicola has completed a number of secondments at insurers, including as Head of Conduct Risk, Head of Compliance, as well as a secondment to the Financial Services Authority. She has also managed a number of regulatory Skilled Person (s166) reviews for the FCA and PRA.

Caroline Sandeman-Allen
Market Oversight Director, Lloyd's

Caroline is Chief of Market Oversight at Lloyd’s of London. Caroline is a qualified solicitor and chartered company secretary who started her career in commercial litigation before moving “in house” at Lloyd’s where she worked across corporate law and governance, dispute resolution, financial services policy and regulation, strategy, and risk management.  Caroline is currently a member of the Executive Team at Lloyd’s, with responsibility for overseeing the syndicates and insurance businesses which comprise the global Lloyd’s market, underwriting insurance and reinsurance worth $60bn in premiums each year.

Graham Handy
Partner, BDO

Graham leads the Insurance, Advisory and Actuarial teams at BDO, focusing on finance, capital, and risk management and he brings insightful perspectives across commercial, strategic and regulatory matters across the insurance sector. This stems from over 25 years' experience engaging with insurers across the globe on financial, regulatory, operational, and strategic challenges in ever-changing markets.  He has supported insurance firms navigate tremendous regulatory change throughout his career, including IFRS17, Climate change, Capital management, Consumer Duty and wider regulatory change, InsurTech and Digitalisation.

Liam Russell
General Counsel, CII

Liam joined the CII in 2014. He has overall responsibility for managing the CII’s legal, corporate governance, risk and compliance functions. He has also held interim responsibility for managing the CII’s professional standards and equality, diversity and inclusion functions.  Liam has extensive experience of managing commercial legal risks, including those relating to commercial contracts, data protection, professional discipline, dispute resolution and intellectual property protection.  Prior to joining the CII, Liam was a financial services litigation lawyer for a major international law firm.