Following today’s publication of the European Commission’s Digital Finance Strategy for the EU, Insurance Europe’s director general, Michaela Koller, said: 

“As consumers embrace new and innovative digital solutions, the insurance industry continues to strive to meet their expectations and use new technologies to better serve its customers. The COVID-19 pandemic has further emphasised the need for strong and innovative digital capacities in the financial sector. However, it is up to the EU institutions to ensure an appropriate regulatory framework is in place that enables innovation and allows consumers, established companies and new market entrants to benefit from the opportunities that digitalisation can offer. This means removing any regulatory barriers that hold back innovation, facilitating a data-driven financial sector and supporting a greater uptake of new technologies.

“The Commission’s Digital Finance Strategy for the EU represents an important step in this direction, seeking to support digital transformation and innovation and to enable European consumers and businesses to enjoy the benefits and opportunities of digital financial services. 

“For this to be achieved, insurance consumers must enjoy the same level of protection regardless of who their provider may be. The insurance industry therefore welcomes the Commission’s recognition of the need to ensure that the EU legal framework must continue to safeguard financial stability and protect customers via the same activity, same risk, same rules principle. This will help to preserve a level playing field between existing financial institutions and new market participants – such as technology companies offering financial services. The insurance industry also welcomes the recognition of the need to ensure that the EU legal framework is future proof and technology neutral, to ensure that insurers’ innovation for the benefit of their customers is maximised and not unnecessarily hindered. 

“Promoting a data-driven financial sector will also be key to promote innovation and competition. Greater availability of data could help insurers to improve risk monitoring and assessment, offer a better customer experience and increase fraud detection. The insurance industry is supportive of efforts to facilitate appropriate data sharing, in which the treatment of different players is based on a true level playing field. At the same time, customers should have full control over the sharing of their data and feel confident that it is being stored securely. However, much will depend on the specific approach chosen for any data-sharing framework. The industry therefore looks forward to further dialogue with the Commission in the months ahead to help realise these objectives and deliver an appropriate framework.

“Regarding the Commission’s proposal for a Digital Operational Resilience Act for the financial sector, we welcome the Commission’s objective of increasing the cybersecurity of our industry as we embrace the digital transformation. We will now examine the proposal in detail to see if it is fit for purpose, sufficiently risk-based and reflects the specific nature of insurance.”