Pursuit of life and non-life insurance activity

1.  Insurance undertakings shall not be authorised to pursue life and non-life insurance activities simultaneously.

2.  By way of derogation from paragraph 1, Member States may provide that:

(a) undertakings authorised to pursue life insurance activity may obtain authorisation for non-life insurance activities for the risks listed in classes 1 and 2 in Part A of Annex I;

(b) undertakings authorised solely for the risks listed in classes 1 and 2 in Part A of Annex I may obtain authorisation to pursue life insurance activity.

However, each activity shall be separately managed in accordance with Article 74.

3.  Member States may provide that the undertakings referred to in paragraph 2 shall comply with the accounting rules governing life insurance undertakings for all of their activities. Pending coordination in this respect, Member States may also provide that, with regard to rules on winding-up, activities relating to the risks listed in classes 1 and 2 in Part A of Annex I pursued by those undertakings shall be governed by the rules applicable to life insurance activities.

4.  Where a non-life insurance undertaking has financial, commercial or administrative links with a life insurance undertaking, the supervisory authorities of the home Member States shall ensure that the accounts of the undertakings concerned are not distorted by agreements between those undertakings or by any arrangement which could affect the apportionment of expenses and income.

5.  Undertakings which on the following dates pursued simultaneously both life and non-life insurance activities covered by this Directive may continue to pursue those activities simultaneously, provided that each activity is separately managed in accordance with Article 74:

(a) 1 January 1981 for undertakings authorised in Greece;

(b) 1 January 1986 for undertakings authorised in Spain and Portugal;

(c) 1 January 1995 for undertakings authorised in Austria, Finland and Sweden;

(d) 1 May 2004 for undertakings authorised in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia;

(e) 1 January 2007 for undertakings authorised in Bulgaria and Romania;

(ea) 1 July 2013 for undertakings authorised in Croatia;

(f) 15 March 1979 for all other undertakings.

The home Member State may require insurance undertakings to cease, within a period to be determined by that Member State, the simultaneous pursuit of life and non-life insurance activities in which they were engaged on the dates referred to in the first subparagraph.