Isabella Macfarlane

Q & A

When did you start working for ICS and what is your original role?
I joined ICS in June 2025 as Head of London Markets. Since then it’s been an incredibly busy and rewarding time getting under the skin of our London Market services to see how we can best support clients and improve our offering.

What are your key focuses in your current role?
My main focus is developing and growing ICS’s London Market offering, including coordinating coverholder and other delegated authority audits. London market firms and Lloyd’s managing agents often have very specific and sometimes quite complex needs, so my role is about making sure our support is genuinely bespoke, not off-the-shelf.

Alongside that, I spend a lot of time on conduct-related compliance, which naturally links to my wider interest in culture and non-financial misconduct. As well as helping clients who are in active communication with the FCA to understand and interpret the FCA’s communications, and to respond in a way that puts them on the best possible track and helps ease any concerns.

What do you love most about your job?
For me, it always comes back to people. I work with an incredibly collaborative group of colleagues who share ideas, experience and expertise very openly. That kind of culture makes a big difference when you’re dealing with nuanced regulatory and conduct issues.

I also genuinely enjoy working with our clients. They’re typically proactive and want to do the right thing, which makes coaching and advisory work very rewarding. Helping a firm out of a tricky situation or showing them that they’re actually already on the right track and just need a bit of reassurance and structure, is a really satisfying part of what I do.

What were you doing before ICS?
Before joining ICS, I spent five years at the FCA predominantly in insurance supervision. I was literally on the other side of the table (or screen), so I understand how the FCA approaches firms, what is driving their questions, and what a good response looks like from their perspective.

Before the FCA, I worked as an underwriter, including in Lloyd’s and the London Market. That combination of commercial insurance and regulatory experience means I have a rounded view of the industry. I understand the commercial realities and the regulatory pressures, and I try to bridge those in a practical way for clients.

How does your experience help you to support your clients with regard to communicating with the FCA?
At the FCA, I spent a lot of time speaking to a wide range of firms and senior individuals – from chairs and CEOs through to compliance managers. What the FCA consistently values is not perfection, but clarity, honesty and understanding.

I now coach clients with that in mind. I help them understand why the FCA is contacting them, what might sit behind particular lines of questioning, and how to respond in a way that is open, accurate and confident.

Did you go to university? What did you study and does it relate to your current role?
I studied History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. Originally, I wanted to go into art insurance, which is how I found my way into the insurance world, and I did spend time in heritage underwriting. These days art is very much a hobby rather than a career, and I’m quite happy about that – it means I can keep it as something I enjoy personally.

How did you end up in insurance compliance?
There was no grand career plan. Over time, I became increasingly uncomfortable with some elements of culture I saw in the London Market. The number of people driving problematic behaviour was small, but their voices were often loud and influential.

I decided to join the FCA to see what I could do to shift culture from within the regulator. I do feel I helped to move the dial while I was there. Now, at ICS, I’m trying to continue that work from the outside, using my knowledge of the rules, my understanding of the market and my insight into where issues tend to arise to help firms build healthier cultures and better conduct outcomes.

Are you a member of any insurance bodies?
I achieved my ACII qualification over 10 years ago and continue to be an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). I see professional engagement with the wider market as important, and I’m keen for ICS to continue strengthening our links with relevant industry bodies.

What are your main priorities for your clients?
My key priority is to make regulation understandable and manageable. That means translating FCA and broader regulatory jargon into clear language, helping clients understand what genuinely matters for them, and reassuring them when they are already on the right path.

I want clients to feel that they are using their time and resources wisely, focusing on the areas that are truly relevant, and not getting lost in noise.

What are the over-arching issues affecting your clients at the moment?
Right now, clients are grappling with a high volume of regulatory change and expectation that has occurred in the last few years. The “simplification” of the insurance rules is, in practice, quite complex and can feel daunting.

Consumer Duty remains a major focus and we’re also seeing strong demand for conduct training, especially with new guidance around non-financial misconduct coming into force in September, and there are ongoing questions in the wholesale market around the application of Consumer Duty.

How do you hope to support your clients in the next 12 months?
I’m not expecting a tidal wave of brand-new rules, but there are a few areas I’m watching closely. We are expecting the outcomes of the consultations around the Appointed Representatives Regime and the Senior Manager and Certification Regime (SM&CR) which will continue to impact on and shape the landscape across financial services, including insurance.

Across all of this, my two main concerns are first, making sure that firms are taking decisions at the right level of seniority and that those decisions, along with the rationale behind them and any resulting actions, are properly documented. Secondly, I want to make sure that if the FCA does get in touch with our clients, they feel prepared, supported and confident in how they respond.

What are your key regulatory concerns for the next 12 months?
Over the next year, I want to continue providing bespoke, practical support that reflects how each client actually operates.

A big focus will be on turning dense FCA publications into clear, prioritised actions, so clients know what to tackle first and what can wait. Ultimately, my aim is for clients to feel that whatever the regulatory environment throws at them, they have a trusted partner in ICS helping them navigate it.