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In forceSolvency UK: branches of overseas insurersLast checked 11 November 2026

Annual return for a UK branch of an overseas insurer (ARB)

A regulatory return listed by the Bank of England (PRA), insurers, United Kingdom.

The annual return for a UK branch of an insurer based outside the UK: branch balance sheet, premiums and claims, branch technical provisions, reinsurance, ring-fenced funds and information on the financial position and solvency of the whole overseas insurer. Pure reinsurance branches report a shorter set of templates. Source

Official title: Annual Solvency II reporting Third country branches

Check a ARB file, free

The facts

Who files
Third-country branch undertakings other than Swiss general insurers (Reporting Chapter 2A, Article 1(3)); pure reinsurance branches file a shorter set (Articles 43 to 47A). Source
How often
Annual, at the financial year end. Source
Deadline
No later than 70 business days after the firm's financial year end (Reporting 2.5B(5)). Source
Format
XBRL-XML. An XBRL instance for entry point ARB of the Bank of England Insurance Taxonomy, uploaded in BEEDS as an XBRL file or a zip containing it. Filing rules are in the Bank's XBRL Filing Manual v1.0.1. Source
How it is filed
Filing routes recorded for the PRA: BEEDS (Bank of England Electronic Data Submission portal); Email to the Bank's insurance data mailbox. See how firms file with the PRA.
Status
In force
Legal basis
Group
Solvency UK: branches of overseas insurers
Check a file before you file it

Line4 Check for Solvency UK runs the Bank of England's own validation rules on a ARB file in your browser, free. Your file never leaves your computer. What it runs, from its published manifest:

  • Bank of England Insurance Taxonomy 2.2.0: all 696 of the Bank's XBRL validation rules for this return.
  • Also the 49 filing checks from the Bank's XBRL Filing Manual v1.0.1.

It is not a substitute for the validation the supervisor runs when you submit.

Templates (36)

The tables and forms inside the return. Plain name first, the PRA's code in brackets.

  • Content of the submission (IR.01.01.07)
  • Basic information - general (IR.01.02.07)
  • Basic information - RFF and matching adjustment portfolios (IR.01.03.01)
  • Basic information - branch legal entity (IR.01.04.07)
  • Balance sheet (IR.02.01.07)
  • Additional branch balance sheet information (IR.02.03.07)
  • Premiums, claims and expenses by country (IR.05.02.01)
  • Life income and expenditure (IR.05.03.01)
  • Non-life income, expenditure and business model analysis (IR.05.04.01)
  • Business model analysis - financial guarantee insurers (IR.05.07.01)
  • Material pooling arrangements (IR.05.08.01)
  • Assessable mutuals (IR.05.09.01)
  • Life technical provisions (IR.12.01.01)
  • Life best estimate liabilities by country (IR.12.03.01)
  • With-profits Value of Bonus (IR.12.05.01)
  • With-profits Liabilities and Assets (IR.12.06.01)
Show all 36 templates
  • Life obligations analysis (IR.14.01.01)
  • Non-life annuities information (IR.16.01.01)
  • Non-life annuities projection of future cash flows (IR.16.02.01)
  • Non-life Technical Provisions (IR.17.01.01)
  • Non-life best estimate liabilities by country (IR.17.03.01)
  • Non-life projection of future cash flows (IR.18.01.01)
  • Non-life liability projection of future cash flows (IR.18.02.01)
  • Non-life claim development (IR.19.01.01)
  • Non-life general liability claim development (IR.19.02.01)
  • Development of the distribution of claims incurred (IR.20.01.01)
  • Non-life underwriting risks (IR.21.02.01)
  • Cyber underwriting risk (IR.21.04.01)
  • Non-life outwards reinsurance contract information (IR.30.03.01)
  • Non-life outwards reinsurance contract reinsurer exposures (IR.30.04.01)
  • Reinsurer and collateral provider entity information (IR.30.05.01)
  • Outwards reinsurance balance sheet exposures (IR.31.01.01)
  • Content of the submission (IRR.01.01.07)
  • Balance sheet (IRR.02.01.07)
  • Life technical provisions (IRR.12.01.01)
  • Non-Life Technical Provisions (IRR.17.01.01)

Templates of the v2.2.0 entry point, which applies to reporting reference dates on or after 31 December 2026 (frameworks DIS, IR, IMO and MAL take effect on 1 January 2027). Filings for earlier dates use taxonomy v2.0.2 or v2.1.0. Names are the Bank's template labels in the taxonomy. Source

Validation rules

696 rules, as counted from the PRA's published material. Software can run them exactly as published. Source

How they are written: XBRL Formula 1.0 assertions in the taxonomy package (val folder of each framework), plus an Excel list of every rule with its expression, severity and entry points.

The rules, on bankofengland.co.uk

How they were counted

Distinct rule codes in sheet 'ir' of 'Bank of England Insurance Taxonomy Validations v2.2.0 - IR.xlsx' (validations zip) whose 'Severity and modules' column names ARB, with 'Include in XBRL' = yes and 'Deactivated' = no (696), less 0 rule codes set to 'Deactivate' on sheet 'Version 2.2.0' of the validation deny list. The sheet lists 810 rule codes for ARB in all; 114 have 'Include in XBRL' = no.

Counts are in the PRA's own unit, so they are not comparable with other regulators' counts.

Public data

Published only added up across firms. Branch data is included in the Bank's annual insurance aggregate data, which is sourced from the templates of UK solo firms and third-country branches. No firm-by-firm figures are published. Source

Where it is published (CSV and interactive charts)

  • Insurance aggregate data annual report

    Added up across firms · CSV and interactive charts

    An annual statistical release of aggregated UK insurance data from the annual Solvency UK templates of UK solo firms and third-country branches: firm counts, effect of the matching adjustment and transitional measures, own funds ratios by SCR method, non-life premiums and claims development, and life business by line and investment type. A CSV holds every charted figure; the current file is the 2025 year-end data. Source

Official documents (22)

The PRA's own files, with the size and SHA-256 fingerprint of each as downloaded on 11 November 2026, so anyone can tell whether a copy is the same version.

Sources

Every page and document this return's facts were read from.

Knowing exactly what is collected, in what format and under which rules is the first step to real-time supervision. Line4 builds SupTech software for financial regulators that runs checks like these as each return arrives.

Line4's text and records here are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Please credit: “Source: Line4 regulatory submissions library (CC BY 4.0), https://www.line4.ai”. The regulators' documents, forms, taxonomies, rules and data belong to them: see PRA's reuse terms. This describes what regulators publish. It is not legal or regulatory advice: always rely on the regulator's own text.

Last checked 11 November 2026.