01 October 2012

Insurance Insight: EU and US seek to harmonise insurance regulation

The steering committee of the EU-US dialogue project will hold two public hearings on a draft factual report prepared by the project's seven technical committees, and is inviting public comment. The objective of the project, which builds on more than a decade of EU-US regulatory dialogue, is to deepen insight into the overall design, function and objectives of the key aspects of the insurance supervisory regimes in the EU and the US, and to identify important characteristics of both systems.

The report identifies key commonalities and differences in seven areas: professional secrecy and confidentiality; group supervision; solvency and capital requirements; reinsurance and collateral requirements; supervisory reporting, data collection and analysis and disclosure; supervisory peer reviews; independent third-party reviews; and supervisory on-site inspections.

The EU-US dialogue project started in early 2012 when the European Commission, EIOPA, the US National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the Federal Insurance Office of the US Department of the Treasury agreed to participate in a deeper dialogue project to contribute to an increased mutual understanding and enhanced cooperation between the EU and the US to promote business opportunity, consumer protection and effective supervision.

Seven technical committees of the project were established in order to address the specific topics. Each committee comprises experienced professionals from the EU and the US from FIO, the EC, the NAIC and EIOPA, as well as representatives from state insurance regulatory agencies in the US and competent authorities of EU Member States.

Full article

EIOPA press release

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