The Generative Brain

Association of British Insurers

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is the UK trade body for insurance and long-term savings firms, formed in 1985 and funded by member subscriptions. It is not a regulator and is not a prion organisation. It enters the atlas because it is the industry party to the Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance: it made the Commitments on members' behalf, collects compliance reports, and is the only route named in the Code for proposing that a further condition be added to the short list where predictive results may be used. All pages on abi.org.uk returned HTTP 403, so this entry rests on government documents and on search excerpts of ABI pages. Information only.

Key facts

  • The ABI was formed in 1985 by merging several specialist insurance trade bodies; Lloyd's of London was excluded.
  • An excerpt of the ABI's own page says it is funded by member subscriptions on a not-for-profit basis and that members agree to compulsory codes of conduct.
  • Membership counts vary by date and source: over 200 in the 2022 review, about 250 in an undated encyclopedia entry, and more than 300 firms in the 2025 review.
  • Adopting the Code is a condition of ABI membership, and government says members are automatically bound by it.
  • Insurers selling life, critical illness or income protection cover confirm compliance to the ABI each year through a chief underwriter or head of compliance, and report complaints.
  • The ABI publishes the list of compliant insurers; most insurers outside the ABI are said to have signed up, with no number given.
  • Firms that medically underwrite these products must appoint a Nominated Genetics Underwriter and register that person with the ABI.
  • Only the ABI is described as submitting an application to change Appendix I; it publishes the application within a month, seeks stakeholder views and starts an independent peer review, while government decides.
  • The government reports no application to add a condition in over 20 years.
  • In the 2022 review the ABI said insurers do not want access concerns to deter testing, and also that a growing gap between what individuals know and what insurers can ask could lead to inaccurate pricing.
  • The Code says the ABI could conclude that significant anti-selection undermines affordable cover, a scenario that could prompt wider public debate.
  • The ABI released a 2026 to 2028 strategy on trust, resilience and market effectiveness.

Timeline

  1. 1985ABI formed.
  2. 2018Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance published with the ABI as party.
  3. 2020Government annual report 2019 published, saying ABI members are automatically bound.
  4. 2022First 3-year review records ABI statements on genetics.
  5. 2024Call for evidence outcome records fear that familial prion disease could be added to the list.
  6. 2026ABI 2026 to 2028 strategy reported.
  7. 2026Second 3-year review gives membership as more than 300 firms.
Sources for this page