BIBA Travel Medical Directory passes 400,000 enquiries as FCA doubles signposting threshold | Insurance Business
BIBA Travel Medical Directory passes 400,000 enquiries as FCA doubles signposting threshold
Five years of growing directory demand meets a policy change that will refer fewer consumers to specialist providers – and a conversion gap that neither figure resolves
Insurance News
Jul 13, 2026
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BIBA’s Travel Medical Directory has passed 400,000 enquiries in the five years since the FCA recognised it as a signposting solution for consumers with pre-existing medical conditions – with annual enquiries now running at nearly four times the level of the directory’s inaugural year. The milestone arrives, however, at a moment of policy tension: the FCA doubled the premium loading threshold that triggers the signposting referral requirement from £100 to £200 in January 2026, meaning fewer consumers will now be directed to specialist directories at the point where they might otherwise be declined or excluded.
Graeme Trudgill, chief executive of BIBA, said the figure demonstrated the directory’s real-world impact. “Reaching more than 400,000 enquiries in just five years demonstrates the real difference the Travel Medical Directory is making to consumers who may otherwise struggle to find suitable cover,” he said. “Travel insurance plays a vital role in providing peace of mind when people travel, particularly for those with serious medical conditions. We are proud that the directory, and our specialist insurance brokers, continue to support consumers and help them access the cover they need.”
Graeme Reynolds, director of competition and interim director of insurance at the FCA, said the results confirmed the signposting rules were working. “Finding travel insurance can be difficult for people with pre-existing medical conditions. Our rules help connect consumers with specialist providers by using a specialist directory to search for suitable cover. The success of BIBA’s Travel Medical Directory over the last five years shows how important this support can be in helping people find the insurance they need.”
Both assessments, however, sit alongside a conversion gap the data exposes: the FCA estimated its signposting intervention generated an additional 21,000 policy sales across the market. Set against 400,000 directory enquiries through BIBA’s directory alone, that gap suggests many consumers who reach the directory still do not secure cover – a finding the FCA itself acknowledged, describing the intervention’s impact as “positive, albeit lower than we expected.”
What the threshold change means for access
The signposting rules, introduced in April 2021 under Policy Statement PS20/3, require firms to direct consumers to a specialist directory when declining cover due to a medical condition, offering a policy with an unremovable exclusion, or when a premium loading exceeds the threshold. The FCA’s own review found that 75% of consumers with screening scores between 6 and 10.99 on annual policies were being signposted under the old £100 trigger – a population that will no longer automatically trigger the referral requirement under the £200 threshold. The FCA will review the figure every five years in line with the Consumer Prices Index.
The regulator also introduced a one-entry-per-firm rule for directories, targeting brand stacking where firms listed multiple brands despite using the same screening and underwriting processes. There are 33 firms listed across the two FCA-recognised directories – BIBA’s and the Money and Pensions Service’s MoneyHelper platform. The MaPS directory includes medical screening information showing distinctions between listed firms, a feature the BIBA directory does not replicate in the same format
The non-disclosure problem signposting has not solved
The access challenge runs deeper than signposting mechanics. Research from Gigasure, published in December 2025, found that 24% of UK holidaymakers knowingly withhold pre-existing conditions when buying travel insurance. Financial Ombudsman Service data showed a 19% rise in claims rejected for non-disclosure. That sits alongside rising medical claims costs: ABI data showed members paid out £472 million across more than 500,000 travel insurance claims in 2024, with medical expenses accounting for 34% of those claims.
Average travel insurance premiums rose roughly 43% between 2020 and 2024 based on ABI figures
A higher threshold combined with rising costs creates a specific access risk: consumers who no longer trigger the referral requirement but still cannot find affordable cover may turn to non-disclosure rather than specialist directories – producing exactly the claims rejection outcomes the signposting framework was designed to prevent
What comes next
BIBA and the ABI launched a broader voluntary Total Signposting Commitment in January 2026, extending the referral principle to all classes of personal lines insurance and supporting the government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy. Existing signposting agreements covering age, flood, medical conditions and protection have handled more than 1.7 million enquiries since launch. For brokers, the practical question is whether a higher threshold and rising costs will push more consumers towards non-disclosure or towards specialist intermediaries outside the signposting framework. The FCA said it would continue to enforce compliance and follow up with firms where it identified failures.
