The Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) has recently announced that it has agreed to further enhance supervisory cooperation with the Swiss insurance supervisor, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). To access the CEIOPS and FINMA press releases, please click here and here.
Previously, all CEIOPS members had signed a multilateral memorandum of understanding (Memorandum) with FINMA’s predecessor, the Swiss Federal Office of Private Insurance (FOPI). This Memorandum facilitated the exchange of information. To view the Memorandum, please click here.
CEIOPS members have now agreed to recognise FINMA as the legal successor of FOPI and to consider FINMA as a current signatory of the Memorandum. CEIOPS has published a note setting out the full details of this supervisory cooperation. To access the note, please click here.
During 2009, CEIOPS’ equivalence subcommittee also carried out an equivalence assessment of the supervisory regime applicable in Switzerland to reinsurers, based on criteria produced and published by CEIOPS. The aim of this assessment was to establish whether the Swiss regime could be considered equivalent to that applying to EU reinsurers under the current Reinsurance Directive (Directive (EC) 2005/6800).
CEIOPS members concluded that FINMA’s supervision of reinsurers is equivalent to that applying to EU reinsurers under the Reinsurance Directive, although CEIOPS stated that the equivalence assessment is without prejudice to the separate equivalence assessment that will be required under the Solvency II Directive. To access CEIOPS findings, please click here.
To view previous blogs relating to CEIOPS and Solvency II, please click here and here.
