European Union (Insurance Distribution) Regulations 2018

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 229/2018
• Year: 2018

CONTENTS

Regulation

Part 1

Preliminary and general

1. Citation and commencement

2. Interpretation

3. Scope

Part 2

Competent Authority

4. Competent authority

5. ‘General good’ rules

Part 3

Registration requirements

6. Bank to establish and maintain Insurance Distribution Register

7. Bank to establish online registration system

8. Registration of persons already registered or authorised to carry out insurance or reinsurance activities

9. Application for registration as an insurance, reinsurance or ancillary insurance intermediary

10. Grant and refusal of applications for registration

11. Power of Bank to obtain further information

12. Review of registration

13. Withdrawal of registration and removal from the register

14. Consequences of withdrawal of registration under this Part as regards other Member States

Part 4

Freedom to provide services and freedom of establishment

15. Exercise of the freedom to provide services

16. Carrying on business in the State

17. Requirement to notify Bank of branch or permanent presence in another Member State

18. Establishment of branch or permanent presence in the State

19. Refusal to process notification

Part 5

Organisational Requirements

20. Competence requirements

21. Indemnities, protections and policies

22. Complaints procedures

Part 6

Cooperation with Member States

23. Cooperation and exchange of information with competent authorities of Member States

24. Division of competence between home and host Member States

25. Cooperation between competent authorities on freedom to provide services — host member state

26. Cooperation between competent authorities on freedom to provide services — home member state

27. Cooperation between competent authorities on freedom of establishment — host member state

28. Cooperation between competent authorities on freedom of establishment — home member state

29. Out-of-court redress

PART 7

Information requirements and conduct of business rules

Chapter 1

Information

30. Information requirements and conduct of business rules

31. Information and transparency requirements for insurance intermediaries

32. Information and transparency requirements for insurance undertakings

33. Information requirements for ancillary insurance intermediaries

34. Advice, and standards for sales where no advice is given

35. Information exemptions and flexibility clause

36. Information conditions

37. Cross-selling

38. Product oversight and governance requirements

Chapter 2

Additional requirements in relation to insurance-based investment products

39. Additional information and transparency requirements for insurance-based investment products

40. Commissions, fees and non-monetary benefits paid in respect of independent advice

41. Information to customers

42. Assessment of suitability and appropriateness, and reporting to customers

43. Record keeping and reporting obligations for insurance-based investment products

Part 8

Sanctions and other measures

44. Sanctions in Regulations 46 and 47, and Act of 1942

45. Contraventions

46. Sanctions — contravention of Regulation 45(e)

47. Sanctions — contravention of Regulation 45(a) to (d) and (f)

48. Relevant annual turnover

49. Exercise of supervisory powers and imposition of sanctions

50. Right of appeal

51. Delegations, etc.

Part 9

Publication

52. Publication of information

Part 10

Arrangements for Reporting of Breaches

53. Reporting of breaches

Part 11

Consequential Amendments

54. Amendment of Central Bank Act 1942

55. Amendment of Investment Intermediaries Act 1995

Part 12

Offences

56. Offence — false, etc., information

57. Offence — person carrying on insurance or reinsurance distribution other than where registered

58. Penalties

59. Summary prosecutions by Bank

Part 13

Repeals and Transitionals

60. Revocations

61. Transitional

SCHEDULE

Minimum Professional Knowledge and Competence Requirements

S.I. No. 229 of 2018

EUROPEAN UNION (INSURANCE DISTRIBUTION) REGULATIONS 2018

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 3rd July, 2018.

I, PASCHAL DONOHOE, Minister for Finance, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) and for the purpose of giving effect to Directive (EU) 2016/971 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 January 2016 on insurance distribution, hereby make the following regulations:

Part 1

Preliminary and general

Citation and commencement

1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the European Union (Insurance Distribution) Regulations 2018.

(2) These Regulations shall come into operation on 1 October 2018.

Interpretation

2. (1) In these Regulations—

“Act of 1942” means the Central Bank Act 1942 (No. 22 of 1942);

“Act of 1995” means the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995 (No. 11 of 1995);

“Act of 2013” means the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013 (No. 26 of 2013);

“advice” means the provision of a personal recommendation to a customer, either upon their request or at the initiative of the insurance distributor, in respect of one or more insurance contracts;

“ancillary insurance intermediary” means a person, other than a credit institution or an investment firm as defined in points (1) and (2) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 20132 who, for remuneration, takes up or pursues the activity of insurance distribution on an ancillary basis, provided that all the following conditions are met:

(a) the principal professional activity of that person is other than insurance distribution;

(b) the person only distributes certain insurance products that are complementary to a good or service;

(c) the insurance products concerned do not cover life assurance or liability risks, unless that cover complements the good or service which the intermediary provides as its principal professional activity;

“approved professional body” means a body approved under section 56 of the Act of 1995;

“authorised officer” means a person appointed under section 24 of the Act of 2013;

“Bank” means the Central Bank of Ireland;

“branch” means an agency or a branch of an insurance intermediary, ancillary insurance intermediary or a reinsurance intermediary, which is located in the territory of a Member State other than the home Member State, and any permanent presence of an intermediary in a Member State other than its home Member State shall be treated in the same way as a branch, even where that presence does not take the form of a branch but consists merely of an office managed by the staff of the intermediary or by a person who is independent but has permanent authority to act for the intermediary as an agency would;

“close links” has the same meaning as in the Regulations of 2015;

“Commission” means the European Commission;

“Directive 2009/138/EC” means Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 20093 on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Reinsurance (Solvency II);

“Directive of 2016” means Directive (EU) 2016/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 January 20161 on insurance distribution;

“durable medium” means any instrument which—

(a) allows a customer to store information addressed personally to the customer in a way that renders it accessible for future reference and for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information, and

(b) allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored;

“EIOPA” means the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority;

“general good rules” has the meaning given to it in Regulation 5;

“home Member State” means—

(a) where the intermediary is a natural person, the Member State in which his or her residence is situated, or

(b) where the intermediary is a legal person, the Member State in which its registered office is situated or, if under its national law it has no registered office, the Member State in which its head office is situated;

“host Member State” means the Member State, other than the home Member State, in which an insurance, reinsurance or ancillary insurance intermediary—

(a) has a permanent presence or establishment, or

(b) provides services;

“insurance-based investment product” means an insurance product which offers a maturity or surrender value, where that maturity or surrender value is wholly or partially exposed, directly or indirectly, to market fluctuations, and does not include the following:

(a) non-life insurance products as listed in Annex I to Directive 2009/138/EC (Classes of non-life insurance);

(b) life insurance contracts where the benefits under the contract are payable only on death or in respect of incapacity due to injury, sickness or disability;

(c) pension products which, under national law, are recognised as having the primary purpose of providing the investor with an income in retirement, and which entitle the investor to certain benefits;

(d) officially recognised occupational pension schemes falling under the scope of—

(i) Directive 2003/41/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 June 20034 , or

(ii) Directive 2009/138/EC;

(e) individual pension products for which a financial contribution from the employer is required by national law and where the employer or the employee has no choice as to the pension product or provider;

“insurance distribution” means any activity involved in advising on, proposing, or carrying out other work preparatory to the conclusion of contracts of insurance, of concluding such contracts, or of assisting in the administration and performance of such contracts, in particular in the event of a claim, including the provision of information concerning...