On 10 December 2013, representatives of the Polish Insurance Association met with Gabriel Bernardino, Chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and its representatives. The meeting was aimed at presenting the Recommendation of good information practices regarding life insurance policies with insurance capital funds.
Representatives of PIU were assured that the recommendation prepared by the Association may serve as a model for EIOPA as regards its work on information standards in connection with the final form of the PRIPs regulations.
During the presentation, Gabriel Bernardino expressed his appreciation with respect to the Polish self-regulatory solution. He approved the involvement of insurance market in the preparatory stage. He emphasised the well-thought-out implementation process of the solution, in particular consultations with the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), the Ministry of Finance, the Polish Insurance Ombudsman, and examining materials in terms of risk connected with counteracting unfair competition, among other issues.
According to Gabriel Bernardino, obtaining wide support from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, which was expressed by the promise to publish the text of the recommendation and a list of insurers which will accede to it on the KNF’s website, and including compliance with the recommendation rules in the BION (Supervisory Review and Assessment) was exceptionally important and useful.
In the sample ICF Product Data Sheet, the Chairman found very useful the inclusion of three variants of insurance history simulation, standardisation of rates of return and a clear form of presentation of fees and types of risk connected with the product. According to him, it will ensure better comparability of offers proposed by insurance companies.
At the meeting, the idea of self-regulation in the form of soft law and active market operations identifying and solving significant client issues received a positive opinion. Gabriel Bernardino pointed out that markets which disregarded consumer issues and did not react to them were regulated authoritatively, in most cases with negative effect from their perspective. Therefore, he keenly approved wide support (98 per cent of the market measured by the premium on insurance policies with ICF after the third quarter of 2013) which the recommendation adopted by the Association enjoys. At the same time, he expressed his hope that insurance companies which did not declare to accede to the recommendation, will change their minds soon.
At the request of the EIOPA’s Chairman, representatives of PIU agreed to keep him informed about the progress of works on implementing the icf recommendation in Poland.
The meeting was attended by:
From PIU:
• Jan Grzegorz Prądzyński, CEO of PIU
• Marcin Łuczyński, Member of the Management Board of PIU
• Piotr Zadrożny, Coordinator of the Tax and Finance of Insurance Companies and Life Insurance Team
From EIOPA:
• Gabriel Bernardino, Chairman of the EIOPA
• Dr Manuela Zweimueller, Head of the Regulations Department
• Katja Würtz, Head of the Consumer Protection and Financial Innovation Unit
• Susanne Rosenbaum, lawyer
