2019 in review: A snapshot of our work

Fausto Parente, Executive Director

We recently published our annual report and report on supervisory activities for the year 2019. Combined, the reports provide a comprehensive overview of the different issues that we worked on to strengthen the insurance and occupational sectors – and supervision of them – across Europe.

Conduct of business supervision was one area where we significantly strengthened our work. This included finalising  two thematic reviews: one on the use Big Data analytics in motor and health insurance; and one on consumer protection issues in travel insurance, which resulted in a warning  to insurers and insurance intermediaries to tackle high commissions for travel insurance products.

We also undertook considerable work as part of 2020 Review of Solvency II to ensure that the landmark regulation remains fit for purpose. Following a wide-ranging consultation, EIOPA published its holistic impact assessment earlier this year and will deliver its Opinion in December 2020.

We continued to build a consistent approach to supervision and promote high quality supervisory practices through the implementation of our supervisory convergence plan, with priority given to proportionality, the supervision of internal models and the supervision of cross-border business.

As part of our work to identify trends and potential risks and vulnerabilities to the sectors, we regularly published insurance and occupational pension statistics, the risk dashboard and financial stability reports.
In the area of pensions, we conducted a stress test on the occupational pensions sector. For the first time, the stress test included an assessment of environmental, social and governance exposures. We also worked on achieving proportional and relevant application of the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provisions – IORP II Directive throughout Europe.

In addition, we began work on a number of specific technical deliverables for the Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP) and continued our work on cross-cutting themes of sustainable finance and InsurTech, digitalisation and cyber resilience, including a further investigation into the cyber insurance market in Europe.

These are just some of the highlights from last year and none of them should be seen in isolation as we have carried forward our work on many of these topics into 2020.

Looking ahead, the current crisis is one of the biggest challenges facing both the insurance and pensions sectors today. Both play a vital roles in society and it is in everyone’s interest to have strong and resilient sectors.

To meet this challenge, we need solidarity and a concerted effort from all actors: supervisors, governments, the European institutions and industry so that we can emerge from the crisis with an insurance industry that is well-equipped to rebound and serve the economy, businesses and people.

For the remainder of this year, we will continue to focus our effort to foster strong and resilient insurance and occupational pensions sectors in Europe that benefit people, business and economies across Europe.