Regulation rush leaves market robust

Patrick Snowball, group executive director, Norwich Union has expressed surprise at how many brokers have applied to become Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulated in January 2005.

Mr Snowball, who has always believed that the impending regulation of general insurance sales was unnecessary "as there is no systemic problem", said he was surprised at the number of brokers that had "stepped up to the plate".

He commented: "If you had asked me 18 months ago how many brokers I would have