EIOPA's updated survey of the competences of national competent authorities in the field of Consumer Protection

28 June 2012

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority published a survey, the main purpose of which is to define and delineate the competences of national competent authorities with regard to the area of consumer protection.

Article 9(4) of Regulation 1094/2010 establishing EIOPA (“the EIOPA Regulation”) requires EIOPA to establish “as an integral part of the Authority, a Committee on financial innovation, which brings together all relevant competent national supervisory authorities with a view to achieving a coordinated approach to the regulatory and supervisory treatment of new or innovative financial activities and providing advice for the Authority to present to the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission”.

In order to implement the requirement for this Committee to be an integral part of the Authority and to bring together all relevant competent national supervisory authorities, CEIOPS Managing Board proposed on 15 December 2010 that the CCP be renamed the “Committee on Consumer Protection and Financial Innovation” (or CCPFI). The renaming of this Committee was approved by EIOPA’s Board of Supervisors by written procedure on 21 January 2011. Since then CCPFI has worked on a number of deliverables in the area of consumer protection and financial innovation, such as Good Practices Report on the disclosure and sale of variable annuities, and Guidelines on complaints-handling by insurance undertakings.

The main purpose of this survey is to define and delineate the competences of national competent authorities with regard to the area of consumer protection. This has been achieved essentially by updating a previous internal survey carried out by CEIOPS. It is noted that this survey is limited to considering national competences in the area of consumer protection only and therefore, does not consider competences at a national level with regard to financial innovation.

In the case of Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORPs), not all the issues of consumer protection identified in this report for insurance and intermediaries can be easily transferred to IORPs. This is because of their occupational nature, the fact that membership is part of an employment arrangement, and because some definitions set in the report for consumer issues (e.g. general good provisions and market conduct) may not fit well for all IORPs. So, at this stage, the survey on the competences with regard to consumer protection issues for IORPs covers information requirements and advertising to a limited extent.

The following general conclusions can be drawn from this updated survey:

• Internal Structure: As a result of the transition of CEIOPS to EIOPA, there has not been a significant change in the number of national authorities, which are competent to supervise the market conduct of insurance undertakings and intermediaries.
• Market Conduct of insurance undertakings and intermediaries towards potential or existing policyholders: There has been a gradual increase over the past few years in the elaboration of additional market conduct principles and issuance of national codes of conduct with respect to both insurance undertakings and intermediaries.
• Information Requirements: There has not been a significant change in recent years with regards to competences for disclosure requirements towards potential/existing policyholders, insured persons, pension members and beneficiaries.
• Advertising: There has not been a significant change in recent years with regards to competences in the area of advertising. However, new regulatory frameworks have been introduced or are in preparation in a number of Member States, and the number of cases of supervisory intervention has increased materially in several Member States.
• General Good Provisions: The number of authorities exhibiting competence or enhanced involvement with regard to general good rules has increased and in some jurisdictions, Member States have sought to enhance the public awareness and prominence of general good rules.

Full survey

Annex I: Structure and Competences of national competent authorities in the field of Consumer Protection

Annex II  List of national Codes of Conduct (EIOPABoS12/074)

© EIOPA