EIOPA publishes discussion paper on national insurance guarantee schemes

30 July 2018

The EIOPA published its discussion paper on resolution funding and national insurance guarantee schemes as a follow-up to the EIOPA Opinion on the harmonisation of recovery and resolution frameworks for (re)insurers across the Member States published in 2017.

In the European Union, there are different sources of resolution funding available for failing insurers. The landscape of insurance guarantees schemes is also significantly fragmented, with the existing schemes differing quite substantially in terms of financing, functions, mandate and coverage.

In its discussion paper, EIOPA has analysed the need for potential harmonisation of insurance guarantee schemes on the basis of the following three options:

• Maintaining the current fragmented landscape where some but not all Member States have insurance guarantee schemes in place
• Establishing a European network of national insurance guarantee schemes which are adequately funded and sufficiently harmonised (minimum harmonisation)
• Establishing a single European Union wide insurance guarantee scheme (maximum harmonisation)

Based on this analysis, EIOPA proposes a minimum degree of harmonisation in the European Union. This would benefit policyholders, the insurance market and more broadly the financial stability in the European Union. EIOPA is seeking feedback from stakeholders regarding this assessment and the potential design features of insurance guarantee schemes such as their scope, funding and coverage.

The discussion paper is open for comments until 26 October 2018.

Press release

Discussion paper

© EIOPA