The Central Bank does NOT authorise and regulate which one of the following entities established in the State?

• A. Life assurance companies.
• B. Credit intermediaries.
• C. Home reversion firms.
• D. Reinsurance companies.

Answer: (B)

The value the Central Bank places on regulating is the control of entities that themselves bear and manage financial risk, such as insurers and reinsurers and the institutions that issue guarantees or long‑term financial commitments. Life assurance companies and home reversion firms fall into that category because they provide or back long‑term contracts and products with insured or guaranteed obligations. Reinsurance companies also carry the risk of large guarantees by spreading it to other insurers, so they are within the Central Bank’s oversight.

Credit intermediaries, on the other hand, do not issue policies or carry these guarantees themselves; they simply arrange or broker credit between borrowers and lenders. That activity is governed by separate consumer credit regulation and, in many places, by a different supervisory framework rather than by the Central Bank as the primary regulator. So, in this State, credit intermediaries aren’t authorized and regulated by the Central Bank, whereas the other entities listed are.