Cross-Border Insurance Groups: Towards a Comprehensive Supervision Under Solvency II*
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ross-Border Insurance Groups: Towards a Comprehensive Supervision Under Solvency II* Pierpaolo Maranoa and Michele Sirib a
Faculty of Banking, Finance and Insurance Sciences, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] b Department of Law, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy. E-mail: [email protected]
This paper explores the Solvency II standards for EU supervision of insurance groups operating across borders as detailed by the guidelines issued by EIOPA. The EU legislator has preferred to reinforce the tool of the colleges of supervisors, which are multilateral platforms where national supervisors involved in the supervision of a single insurance group cooperate, instead of opting for a single EU supervisor. The paper analyses cooperation between supervisory authorities in the context of the colleges in order to clarify the fields covered by the colleges as well as those that are not. In this respect, the paper argues for including in the mandate of the colleges the task of defining and implementing a common principle of group interest to administer the governance system of cross-border insurance groups, and to extend the supervision of colleges to the distribution of insurance products. The Geneva Papers (2018) 43, 594–614. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41288-018-0090-7 Keywords: EIOPA; system of governance; group supervision; insurance distribution; product governance
Article submitted 9 October 2017; accepted 7 May 2018; published online 19 July 2018
Cross-border insurance groups in Europe: a snapshot To describe the phenomenon of insurance undertakings operating on a cross-border basis in Europe (EU and EEA), it is useful to provide some data.1 In 2014, there were 3373 life and non-life insurance undertakings with head offices in Europe. These EU/EEA insurance
*Both authors have elaborated the paper. Nevertheless, the first, third, eighth and ninth sections can be attributed to Pierpaolo Marano, and the fourth to seventh sections to Michele Siri; the second and final sections were jointly drafted. 1
In this paper ‘‘Europe’’ and ‘‘European’’ refer to the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU) including the U.K., as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, which are part of the European Economic Area (EEA) together with the EU Member States.
Pierpaolo Marano and Michele Siri Cross-Border Insurance Groups
595
undertakings operate across borders with 492 subsidiaries in other EU/EEA countries, while their branches amount to 577, and notifications to operate under the freedom to provide services number 7617.2 With reference to cross-border insurance groups, EIOPA recorded 92 groups with a head office and subsidiaries in Europe operating on a cross-border basis in October 2016, whilst there were 29 EEA colleges with non-EEA country participants. Almost all the groups are among the top five largest insurers in each of their European home countries. Three groups (Allianz, Ergo and Generali) have subsidiaries in more than 15 countries in Europe and five groups
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