Your article "NHBC seeks judicial review of European Union insurance directive" (7 May, page 15) suggests that the National House Building Council is not within the remit of the Financial Services Authority.
However, as a major insurance company, the NHBC has been authorised and regulated by the FSA since the authority assumed regulatory powers in 2001.

The NHBC has indeed been in discussions with the FSA, but not, as you suggest, to fight the insurance mediation directive being implemented by the EU. This has already been implemented in the UK through statutory instruments that extend the remit of the FSA to cover the regulation of insurance intermediaries.

And, contrary to your article, the NHBC has presented no objections to this directive. Our discussions have concerned whether builders registered with the NHBC would be required to be authorised as insurance intermediaries by the FSA from 15 January 2005.

Happily, the FSA has agreed that, since NHBC-registered builders do not carry out regulated activity under the NHBC Buildmark scheme in respect of insurance mediation, they will not require authorisation by the FSA.

On a final point, the article describes the NHBC as a lobbying organisation for housebuilders. It is important to understand that the NHBC does not speak on behalf of housebuilders. We are an independent company and our main purpose is to improve the quality of new homes and provide consumer protection.

Postscript

Imtiaz Farookhi, chief executive, NHBC