Category: Compliance & AML · Reviewed by Jake Leat, Associate Director · Last reviewed June 2026
The FCA Handbook sourcebook setting the principal prudential standards — capital resources, professional indemnity, client money treatment and notification thresholds — for insurance intermediaries and home finance firms.
MIPRU stands for the Prudential sourcebook for Mortgage and Home Finance Firms, and Insurance Intermediaries. It is the main prudential rulebook that an FCA-authorised insurance broker reads alongside its conduct sourcebook. It sets out the minimum capital, professional indemnity insurance (PII), accounting and reporting requirements that proportionately scaled firms must meet.
MIPRU is part of the FCA Handbook, made under FSMA sections 137A (rule-making) and 138 (general rules). It implements the prudential parts of the Insurance Distribution Directive (Articles 10(4), 10(5) and 10(6)) for insurance intermediaries — namely the PII requirement, the financial capacity requirement and the client money safeguards.
For a typical insurance intermediary that does not hold client money on a risk-transfer basis, the key MIPRU chapters are MIPRU 2 (responsibility for insurance distribution activity), MIPRU 3 (PII), MIPRU 4 (capital resources) and MIPRU 4.4 (calculation of capital resources). MIPRU 3 requires PII of at least the IDD minima (currently €1,300,380 per claim and €1,924,560 in aggregate, subject to indexation), with deductibles capped or covered. MIPRU 4.2 requires minimum capital resources of the higher of £10,000 or 2.5% of annual income from regulated activity (5% for firms that hold client money other than under risk transfer).
Where the firm is also CASS 5 client money-holding (statutory trust rather than risk transfer), the calculation steps up. Where the firm is part of a group, MIPRU 2.2 fixes responsibility on a single approved person — the SMF3 or SMF16/17 holder will typically own this. Mortgage firms have a different MIPRU 4.2 calculation that brings in commitment-based measures.
A general insurance intermediary with annual regulated income of £900,000, no client money handled outside risk transfer, must hold the higher of £10,000 or 2.5% of £900,000 = £22,500 in eligible capital resources. Capital resources comprise paid-up share capital plus audited reserves less deductions for intangibles and certain illiquid assets. PII renewal becomes a board-level item six weeks before expiry to avoid permitted-activity prejudice.
FCA Handbook, Prudential sourcebook for Mortgage and Home Finance Firms, and Insurance Intermediaries (MIPRU). Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, sections 137A and 138. UK retained Insurance Distribution Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/97), Article 10. FCA Policy Statement PS18/24 (PII threshold indexation).
By Matt Bartlett, Director, on 2026-06-11.
This entry is part of the Apex Insurance Wiki. Last reviewed by Matt Bartlett on 2026-06-11. Apex Insurance Brokers Limited, FCA FRN 724952, Companies House 07014570. Not regulated advice — consult your broker on your specific position.
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