Insurance Europe: New paper: Making EU insurance regulation that works and benefits consumers

04 December 2019

Insurance Europe has published a new paper on how EU policymakers can ensure rules for insurers work properly and benefit consumers.

Unfortunately, EU financial services rules do not always achieve their aim of benefiting consumers and the current regulatory processes themselves do not always lead to good outcomes. It is encouraging, therefore, to see that this has been recognised by the new European Commission.

In the paper, Insurance Europe calls on EU policymakers to:

• Avoid continual regulatory changes – Policymakers should perform in-depth analysis to ensure that any new legislation (Levels 1, 2 and 3) is fit for purpose from the start. At the same time, they should keep the regulatory framework stable and change rules only if it will  demonstrably benefit consumers.
• Avoid legal uncertainty – Policymakers should allocate the necessary time and resources to meaningful consultations with all stakeholders. The insurance industry’s experience can help the EU to produce high-quality legislation that provides maximum legal clarity.
• Avoid inconsistencies, overlaps and duplication – Coherence and consistency across EU legislation must be ensured. This can be achieved by assessing the cumulative impact that the proposed rules and existing rules would have on consumers.
• Avoid unfit rules and disclosures that mislead consumers – Policymakers must ensure that disclosures are clear, meaningful and help consumers to understand insurance products.
• Avoid outdated rules and obstacles to pro-consumer innovation – Policymakers must design digital-friendly rules to allow consumers to access information or services digitally if they wish and to benefit from the opportunities that digitalisation offers. They should also make rules future-proof and innovation friendly, so they are fit for the digital age and allow insurers to respond to the evolving needs and expectations of consumers.
• Avoid implementation timelines that are too short – There must be separate timeframes for developing Level 2 and 3 measures and for industry implementation. Insurers must also be provided with at least one year for implementation after Level 2 texts are published in the Official Journal of the EU.

Insurance Europe also published a decision tree to help policymakers to ensure they make the right choices for consumers when designing and reviewing insurance rules.

Full publication on Insurance Europe

© InsuranceEurope