Registration

1. Insurance, reinsurance, and ancillary insurance intermediaries shall be registered with a competent authority in their home Member State.

Insurance and reinsurance undertakings and their employees shall not be required to register under this Directive.

Without prejudice to the first subparagraph, Member States may stipulate that insurance and reinsurance undertakings and intermediaries and other bodies may cooperate with the competent authorities in registering insurance and reinsurance and ancillary insurance intermediaries and in the application of the requirements laid down in Article 10.

In particular, insurance, reinsurance and ancillary insurance intermediaries may be registered by an insurance or reinsurance undertaking, insurance or reinsurance intermediary, or by an association of insurance or reinsurance undertakings, or insurance or reinsurance intermediaries, under the supervision of a competent authority.

An insurance or reinsurance intermediary or an ancillary insurance intermediary may act under the responsibility of an insurance or reinsurance undertaking or another intermediary. In such a case, Member States may stipulate that the insurance or reinsurance undertaking or other intermediary shall be responsible for ensuring that the insurance or reinsurance intermediary or ancillary insurance intermediary meets the conditions for registration, including the conditions set out in point (c) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 6.

Member States may also stipulate that the insurance or reinsurance undertaking or other intermediary which takes responsibility for the insurance or reinsurance intermediary or ancillary insurance intermediary registers that intermediary or ancillary intermediary.

Member States need not apply the requirement referred to in the first subparagraph to all the natural persons who work in an insurance or reinsurance intermediary or ancillary insurance intermediary and who pursue the activity of insurance or reinsurance distribution.

Member States shall ensure that the registers specify the names of the natural persons within the management of the insurance or reinsurance distributor who are responsible for the insurance or reinsurance distribution.

The registers shall further indicate the Member States in which the intermediary conducts business under the rules on the freedom of establishment or on the freedom to provide services.

2. Member States may establish more than one register for insurance, reinsurance, and ancillary insurance intermediaries provided that they lay down the criteria according to which intermediaries are to be registered.

Member States shall establish an online registration system. That system shall be easily accessible and allow the registration form to be completed directly online.

3. In the event that there is more than one register in a Member State, that Member State shall establish a single information point allowing quick and easy access to information from those registers, which shall be compiled electronically and kept updated. The information point shall also provide the identification details of the competent authorities of the home Member State.

4. EIOPA shall establish, publish on its website and keep up-to-date a single electronic register containing records of insurance, reinsurance and ancillary insurance intermediaries which have notified their intention to carry on cross-border business in accordance with Chapter III. Member States shall provide relevant information to EIOPA promptly to enable it to do this. The register shall contain links to, and be accessible from, each of the Member States’ competent authorities’ websites.

EIOPA shall have the right to access the data stored in the register referred to in the first subparagraph. EIOPA and the competent authorities shall have the right to modify such data. Data subjects whose personal details are stored on the register and exchanged shall have the right to access such stored data and the right to be appropriately informed.

EIOPA shall establish a website with hyperlinks to each single information point or, where applicable, register, established by Member States in accordance with paragraph 3.

Home Member States shall ensure that registration of insurance, reinsurance and ancillary insurance intermediaries is made subject to the fulfilment of the relevant requirements laid down in Article 10.

The validity of the registration shall be subject to a regular review by the competent authority.

Home Member States shall ensure that insurance, reinsurance and ancillary insurance intermediaries who cease to fulfil the requirements laid down in Article 10 are removed from the register. Where applicable, the home Member State shall inform the host Member State of such removal.

5. Member States shall ensure that applications by intermediaries for inclusion in the register are dealt with within three months of the submission of a complete application, and that the applicant shall be notified promptly of the decision.

6. Member States shall ensure that all of the following information is requested as a condition of registration of insurance, reinsurance and ancillary insurance intermediaries:

(a) the identities of shareholders or members, whether natural or legal persons, that have a holding in the intermediary that exceeds 10 %, and the amounts of those holdings;

(b) the identities of persons who have close links with the intermediary;

(c) information that those holdings or close links do not prevent the effective exercise of the supervisory functions of the competent authority.
 
Member States shall ensure that intermediaries inform the competent authorities without undue delay of any change in the information provided under this paragraph.

7. Member States shall ensure that competent authorities refuse registration if the laws, regulations or administrative provisions of a third country governing one or more natural or legal persons with which the intermediary has close links, or difficulties involved in the enforcement of those laws, regulations or administrative provisions, prevent the effective exercise of their supervisory functions.