The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published its first set of Guidelines with a view to establishing consistent, efficient and effective supervisory practices and ensuring common, uniform and consistent application of EU law.
The Guidelines in question cover complaints-handling by insurance companies and seek to address two current areas of concern:
-Information asymmetry-insurers may not handle complaints in the best interests of policyholders, or policyholders may not know the standards to which insurers should adhere and may not be aware of the possibility to submit a complaint;
-An existing regulatory gap–a current lack of EU rules on complaints-handling by insurance companies, leading to a diverse number of national approaches and a potentially unlevel playing field. These Guidelines seek to promote a more convergent approach.
The Guidelines, which are high-level principles and are addressed to competent supervisory authorities only, aim to provide guidance on appropriate internal systems and control for complaints-handling by insurers (such as having a complaints management policy and complaints management function in place) and render them more effective, and provide guidance on the provision of information and procedures for responding to complaints, thereby ensuring the adequate protection of policyholders and beneficiaries.
Since the Guidelines are high-level principles, they have been supplemented by a more detailed Best Practices Report, which seeks to promote common supervisory approaches and practices regarding internal systems and controls and internal follow-up of complaints. EIOPA appreciates the importance of proportionality in applying these Guidelines to different-sized insurance undertakings and aims to consider this as part of a follow-up initiative.
Gabriel Bernardino, chairman of EIOPA, comments “With these Guidelines, EIOPA aims to take an important step towards promoting more transparency, simplicity and fairness in the market for consumer financial products and services and thereby enhance consumer protection, one of our key objectives. The Guidelines fill an important regulatory gap and we expect competent supervisory authorities to make every effort to comply with them. We will be monitoring compliance with these Guidelines closely in the months ahead."
|
