Fit for purpose and fit for the future? An evaluation of the UK’s new flood reinsurance pool

Flood Re is widely hailed as an innovative approach to disaster risk insurance. This paper offers a mixed-methods evaluation of the new pool, asking whether it is “fit for purpose” and “fit for the future”. The investigation considers the roles of the public and private sectors, risk modelling and risk communication, technical underwriting, distributional aspects and the behavioural implications of Flood Re, particularly with regards to risk reduction and prevention. The paper concludes that the new pool is a transitional reinsurance arrangement that supports the private insurance market and secures affordability of flood insurance in the UK through premium subsidies. However, this approach is likely to come under pressure in the face of rising flood risk as it fails to incentivize flood risk management and risk reduction efforts

Empowerment of Whom and for What? Financial Literacy Education and the New Regulation of Consumer Financial Services

Financial regulators in many states recently have obtained statuory mandates to enhance consumer financial literacy. This paper investicages the development of policy pursuant to such mandates in the UK and Canada to identify how national regulators in both countries represent financial market place. It finds that regulators in both countries represent financial education as empowerment and responsible consumer behaviour. The paper rekates the tension between empowerment and responsibilization aspects of literacy enhancement to policy goals of expectations of protection. It raises questions about regulators' use of consumer education to responsiblize consumption of financial products and calls for further research on the international growth of financial literacy education as a regulatory project