2 Restriction on carrying on insurance business.U.K.
(1)Subject to the following provisions of this section, no person shall carry on any insurance business in the United Kingdom unless authorised to do so under section 3 or 4 below.
[F1(1A)Subsection (1) above shall not apply to insurance business carried on by anEC company through a branch in respect of which such of the requirements of Part I of Schedule 2F to this Act as are applicable have been complied with.]
(2)Subsection (1) above shall not apply to insurance business (other than industrial assurance business) carried on—
(a)by a member of Lloyd’s, or
(b)by a body registered under the enactments relating to friendly societies; or
(c)by a trade union or employers’ association where the insurance business carried on by the union or association is limited to the provision for its members of provident benefits or strike benefits.
In this subsection “trade union” and “employers’ association” have (throughout the United Kingdom) the meanings [F2respectively assigned by section 1 and section 122(1) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992].
(3)Subsection (1) above shall not apply to industrial assurance business carried on by a friendly society registered under the enactments relating to such societies.
(4)Subsection (1) above shall not apply to general business of class 14, 15, 16 [F3, 17 or 18] if it is carried on solely in the course of carrying on, and for the purposes of, banking business.
(5)Subsection (1) above shall not apply to general business consisting in the effecting and carrying out, by an insurance company that carries on no other insurance business, of contracts of such descriptions as may be prescribed, being contracts under which the benefits provided by the insurer are exclusively or primarily benefits in kind.
[F4(6)In this Act 'EC company’ means an insurance company—
(a)which is incorporated in or formed under the law of a member State other than the United Kingdom;
(b)whose head office is in that member State; and
(c)which is authorised in accordance with Article 6 of the first general insurance Directive or Article 6 of the first long term insurance Directive.]
[F5(7)In relation to any time before it becomes a member State, each of the following, namely, [F6Iceland, Liechtenstein andNorway], shall be treated as if it were a member State for all purposes of this Act.
F7(8). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]
Textual Amendments
F1S. 2(1A) inserted (1.7.1994) by S.I. 1994/1696, reg. 4(1)
F2Words in s. 2(2) substituted (16.10.1992) by Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (c. 52), ss. 300(2), 302, Sch. 2 para. 31
F3Words substituted by S.I. 1987/2130, reg. 2(a)
F4S. 2(6) inserted (1.7.1994) by S.I. 1994/1696, reg. 4(2)
F5S. 2(7)(8) inserted (30.12.1994) by S.I. 1994/3131, reg. 3(1)
F6Words in s. 2(7) substituted (30.4.1996) by S.I. 1996/944, reg. 3
F7S. 2(8) repealed (30.4.1996) by S.I. 1996/944, reg. 4(1)
Modifications etc. (not altering text)
C1S. 2 restricted (1.1.1993) by S.I. 1992/3218, reg. 5(1)(d)