On 18 September 2025, the Financial Services Tribunal dismissed an application for reconsideration by a financial services provider for approval to use “insure” as part of the FSP’s company name because it was misleading when not used to describe the business of a registered insurer.

Section 5(9) of the Insurance Act expressly prohibits any person, other than a licensed insurance company, from using the words “assure”, “insure” or “underwrite” or any similar derivative as part of the person’s name or description without the approval of the Prudential Authority. Responsibility for section 5(9) of the Insurance Act was delegated to the Financial Sector Conduct Authority who dismissed the FSP’s application for approval.

According to the Tribunal, the word “insure” “describes the work of parties who conduct the business of ‘insurance’ or act as ‘insurers’”, and “the verb and the cognate nouns as part of a name give the same impression”.  The undertakings given by the applicant to include “clear disclaimers where necessary”, and not to mislead the public regarding their status, by implication amounted to a concession that the name was objectively misleading. The Tribunal held that the facts disproved the value of the undertakings. Before the approval was granted, the applicant had already:

  • Changed its registered name with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission to one using “insure”.
  • Advertised itself as “alpha.insure” and “Alpha Insure”, stated it was an insurance company, and announced that it provided “innovative insurance”.
  • Used “Alpha Insure” as part of its social media platform name and on its proposed policy schedule.

The Tribunal found that an insured was unlikely to know, on the applicant’s own proposed policy document referred to in the proceedings, what function was performed by the applicant, noting that the contact references to the insurer and cell holder were those of the applicant. Five previous errors by the FSCA in approving the use of “assure”, “insure” or “underwrite” in contravention of the approval guidelines in the application form could not create a legitimate expectation of an illegal outcome.

Decision – IUM (Pty)Ltd (name change Alpha Insure (Pty) Ltd v FSCA.pdf