Supervision of cross-border insurance business [EU]
The European Commission’s proposals are:
Article 18 (Conditions for authorisation) is amended to introduce a requirement on applicants to provide information on previous rejections or withdrawals of authorisation in other Member States and on supervisory authorities to take that into account in the assessment of applications. In the context of the authorisation process, changes to Article 23 (Scheme of operations) ensure that supervisory authorities will also be informed about intended cross-border business.
A new Article 33a (Supervisory cooperation between home and host supervisory authorities) introduces minimum requirements regarding the exchange of information between the supervisory authorities in home and host Member States concerning the insurers and their activities in the host Member State.
Amendments to Articles 149 (Changes in the nature of the risks or commitments) and 152 (Representative) clarify that insurance undertakings should notify material changes and emerging risks related to ongoing cross-border insurance activities. Supervisory authorities should exchange such information.
Two new paragraphs to Article 152b (Collaboration platforms) enhance the role of EIOPA in complex cross-border cases where the supervisory authorities involved fail to reach a common view in a cooperation platform.
Article 153 (Timeframe and language of information requests) is amended to ensure timely access to information by a supervisory authority of a host Member State.
A new Article 159a (Additional requirements related to significant cross-border activities) empowers the supervisory authority of the host Member State to request from the supervisory authority of the home Member State information on the solvency position of the undertaking and, in case of strong concerns, to request carrying out a joint onsite inspection. EIOPA is given a role in resolving disagreements between supervisory authorities.