James Ferris: There has been a big influx, especially from private-equity-backed businesses. As long as the BMA understands why someone’s coming here, and they have questioned that business extensively on what’s the purpose of coming here, I see no issue with that.

Michael Fontanetta: More capital coming into the space is a good thing. There are plenty of companies with unwanted risks sitting on their balance sheets and a healthy supply of capital deployed to address these problems is good for the whole industry.

While it may lead to competitive pressures on pricing in the short run for legacy solutions providers, in the long run it will further cement the role run-off solutions play in the market.

Mary Ward: We have all these new entrants but not everyone will be able to secure the same return. Increase in competition is driving down returns to challenging levels.

It’s inevitable that the large number of new entrants is likely to result in industry consolidation at some point.

Ferris: The UK market is a very mature legacy market. People understand who the players are, they understand the market, they understand the books of business.

In contrast, the strategic legacy transaction market is still immature in North America and that means the markets can make good returns on this business, driving interest.