Will Paddick's punch-up with the FSA help?

With great regularity brokers tell me they watch customers going out of their offices clutching documentation, required by the Financial Services Authority, which they will not read and will not understand if they do.

And it is not just brokers that are unconvinced that the benefit to customers of regulation is worth the price the industry is paying. Insurer senior managers are also concerned about how the cost may impact the market.

Speaking to Derek Plummer, marketing and underwriting director of MMA recently, he was as animated about the cost of regulation as he was about his company's record profits. He is not alone when pondering: "Is the cost disproportionate to the benefits, what is it actually doing for the customer and has the industry really improved as a result?" Allianz Cornhill's chief executive Andrew Torrance has also been vocally unconvinced of the benefits of regulation for consumers.

Obviously, as the expense of regulation initially comes off the bottom line of regulated firms, before being passed to the customer, cost is a real concern.

However, complaining is also a very British cathartic process, occurring between initial shock and the resigned acceptance that eventually follows.

So, while many complain, few see any further mileage in arguing against the regulator, possibly marking the beginnings of acceptance that will become more wholehearted as time goes on.

Enter Andrew Paddick, director general of the Institute of Insurance Brokers, who, as quoted in this month's interview, is one who is prepared to go all the way in opposing certain aspects of regulation under the FSA. But surely this is now against the grain of those that are coming to terms with the most ambitious project ever to be visited on the UK general insurance market.

Some will agree that Paddick's attempts will be too late, while others may view him as an old trooper who is needed now more than ever to keep the bureaucrats in check. Vote online in this month's poll to proffer an insight into the real opinion of regulated firms.