(1) This Order may be cited as the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Variation of Threshold Conditions) Order 2001 and comes into force on the day on which paragraphs 1 to 7 of Schedule 6 come into force.

(2) In this Order -

"the Act" means the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000;

"supervisory authority" means an authority responsible for supervising persons carrying on insurance business;

"Swiss general insurance company" means a person - (a) whose head offce is in Switzerland; (b) who is authorised by the supervisory authority in Switzerland as mentioned in Article 7.1 of the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Swiss Confederation on direct insurance other than life insurance, signed at Luxembourg on 10 October 1989 [Annexed to Council Decision 91/370/EEC, O.J. No. L205, 27.07.1991, p. 2.]; (c) who is seeking to carry on, or is carrying on, from a branch in the United Kingdom, a regulated activity consisting of the effecting or carrying out of contracts of insurance of a kind which is subject to that Agreement.