The Solvency ii
Directive
TITLE I
GENERAL RULES ON THE TAKING-UP AND PURSUIT
OF DIRECT INSURANCE AND REINSURANCE
CHAPTER I
SUBJECT
MATTER, SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS
SECTION 1 - SUBJECT MATTER AND
SCOPE
Article 1
Subject matter
This
Directive lays down rules concerning the following:
(1) the
taking-up and pursuit, within the
Community, of the self-employed
activities of direct insurance and reinsurance;
(2)
the supervision in the case of insurance and reinsurance groups;
(3) the reorganisation and
winding-up of direct insurance undertakings.
Article 2
Scope
1. This
Directive shall apply to direct life and
non-life insurance undertakings which are established in the territory of a Member State or
which wish to become established there.
It shall also
apply to reinsurance undertakings, which conduct
only reinsurance activities, and which are established in the territory of a Member State or
which wish to become established there with the exception of Title
IV.
2. As far as non-life insurance is concerned, this
Directive shall apply to non-life insurance activities of the
classes set out in part A of Annex I.
For
the purposes of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 non-life
insurance shall include the activity which is assistance provided for persons who get into
difficulties while travelling, while away from home or while away
from their permanent residence.
It
shall consist in undertaking, against the prior payment of a
premium, to make aid immediately available to
the beneficiary under an assistance contract where that person is in
difficulties following the occurrence of a chance event, in the
cases and under the conditions set out in the
contract.
The aid may consist in the provision of
benefits in cash or in kind. The provision of benefits in kind may
also be effected by means of the staff and equipment of the person
providing them.
The assistance activity shall not cover servicing, maintenance,
after-sales service or the mere indication or provision of aid as an
intermediary.
3. As far as life insurance is concerned this Directive
shall apply to the following:
(a) the following life
insurance activities where they are on a contractual
basis:
(i) life insurance which comprises, assurance on
survival to a stipulated age only, assurance on death only,
assurance on survival to a stipulated age or on earlier death, life
assurance with return of premiums, marriage assurance, birth
assurance;
(ii) annuities;
(iii) supplementary
insurance underwritten in addition to life
insurance, in particular, insurance against personal injury
including incapacity for employment, insurance against death
resulting from an accident and insurance against disability
resulting from an accident or sickness;
(iv) the type of
permanent health insurance not subject to cancellation currently
existing in Ireland and the United Kingdom known as permanent health
insurance not subject to cancellation;
(b) the following
operations, where they are on a contractual basis, in so far as they
are subject to supervision by the authorities responsible for the
supervision of private insurance:
(i) operations whereby
associations of subscribers are set up with a view to jointly
capitalising their contributions and subsequently distributing the
assets thus accumulated among the survivors or among the
beneficiaries of the deceased (tontines) ;
(ii) capital
redemption operations based on actuarial calculation whereby, in
return for single or periodic payments agreed in advance,
commitments of specified duration and amount are
undertaken;
(iii) management of group pension funds,
comprising the management of investments, and in particular the
assets representing the reserves of bodies that effect payments on
death or survival or in the event of discontinuance or curtailment
of activity;
(iv) the operations referred to in point (iii)
where they are accompanied by insurance covering either conservation
of capital or payment of a minimum interest;
(v) the
operations carried out by life insurance undertakings such as those
referred to in Chapter 1, Title 4 of Book IV of the French "Code des
assurances";
(c) operations relating to the length of human
life which are prescribed by or provided for in social insurance
legislation, in so far as they are effected or managed by life
insurance undertakings at their own risk in accordance with the laws
of a Member State.
SECTION 2 - EXCLUSIONS FROM
SCOPE
SUBSECTION 1 - GENERAL
Article
3
Statutory systems
Without prejudice to point (c) of
Article 2(3), this Directive shall not
apply to insurance forming
part of a statutory system of social security;
Article
4
Exclusion from scope due to size
1. Without
prejudice to Articles 3 and 5 to 10, this Directive shall
not apply
to insurance undertakings which fulfil all of the following
conditions:
(a) the annual gross written premium income does
not exceed EUR 5 million;
(b) the total of the undertaking's
technical provisions, gross of the amounts recoverable from
reinsurance contracts and Special Purpose Vehicles as referred to in
Article 75, does not exceed EUR 25 million;
(c) where the
undertakings belong to a group, the total of the technical
provisions of the group defined as gross of the amounts recoverable
from reinsurance contracts and Special Purpose Vehicles does
not
exceed EUR 25 million;
(d) the business of the undertaking
does not include insurance or reinsurance activities covering
liability, credit and suretyship insurance risks, unless they
constitute ancillary risks within the meaning of Article
16(1);
(e) the business of the undertaking does not include
reinsurance operations exceeding EUR 0.5 million of their gross
written premium income or EUR 2.5 million of their technical
provisions gross of the amounts recoverable from reinsurance
contracts and Special Purpose Vehicles or more than 10% of their
gross written premium income or more than 10% of their technical
provisions gross of the amounts recoverable from reinsurance
contracts and Special Purpose Vehicles.
2. If any of the
amounts set out in paragraph 1 is exceeded for three consecutive
years this Directive shall apply from the fourth year.
2a.
By way of derogation from paragraph 1, this Directive
shall apply to
all undertakings seeking authorisation to carry on insurance and
reinsurance activities whose annual gross written premium income or
technical provisions gross of the amounts recoverable from
reinsurance contracts and Special Purpose Vehicles
are expected to
exceed any of the amounts set out in paragraph 1 within the
following five years.
2b. This Directive shall cease to
apply to those insurance undertakings for which the
supervisory
authority has verified that all of the following conditions are
met:
(a) any of the amounts set out in paragraph 1 has not
been exceeded for the three last consecutive years;
and
(b)
any of the amounts set out in paragraph 1 is
not expected to be
exceeded within the following five years.
As long as the
insurance undertaking concerned carries on activities in accordance
with of Articles 143 to 147, the first subparagraph shall not
apply.
2c. Paragraphs 1 and 2b shall not prevent any
undertaking from applying for authorisation or continuing to be
authorised under this Directive.
SUBSECTION 2 – NON –
LIFE
Article 5
Operations
For
non-life
insurance, this Directive shall not apply to the following
operations:
(1) capital redemption operations, as defined by
the law in each Member State;
(2) operations of provident and
mutual benefit institutions whose benefits vary according to the
resources available and in which the contributions of the members
are determined on a flat-rate basis;
(3) operations carried
out by organisations not having a legal personality with the purpose
of providing mutual cover for their members without there being any
payment of premiums or constitution of technical
reserves;
(4) export credit insurance operations for the
account of or guaranteed by the State, or where the State is the
insurer.
Article 6
Assistance
1. This
Directive shall not apply to assistance activity which fulfils all
the following conditions:
(a) the assistance is provided in
the event of an accident or breakdown involving a road vehicle when
the accident or breakdown occurs in the territory of the Member
State of the undertaking providing cover;
(b) the liability
for the assistance is limited to the following operations:
(i) an on-the-spot breakdown service for which the
undertaking providing cover uses, in most circumstances, its own
staff and equipment;
(ii) the conveyance of the vehicle to
the nearest or the most appropriate location at which repairs may be
carried out and the possible accompaniment, normally by the same
means of assistance, of the driver and passengers to the nearest
location from where they may continue their journey by other
means;
(iii) if provided for by the Member State of the
undertaking providing cover, the conveyance of the vehicle, possibly
accompanied by the driver and passengers, to their home, point of
departure or original destination within the same State;
(c)
the assistance is not carried out by an undertaking subject to this
Directive.
2. In the cases referred to in points (i) and (ii)
of paragraph 1(b), the condition that the accident or breakdown must
have happened in the territory of the Member State of the
undertaking providing cover shall not apply where the beneficiary is
a member of the body providing cover and the breakdown service or
conveyance of the vehicle is provided simply on presentation of a
membership card, without any additional premium being paid, by a
similar body in the country concerned on the basis of a reciprocal
agreement, or, in the case of Ireland and the United Kingdom, where
the assistance operations are provided by a single body operating in
both States.
3. This Directive shall not apply in the case of
operations as referred to in point (iii) of paragraph 1(b), where
the accident or the breakdown has occurred in the territory of
Ireland or, in the case of the United Kingdom, in the territory of
Northern Ireland and the vehicle, possibly accompanied by the driver
and passengers, is conveyed to their home, point of departure or
original destination within either territory.
4. This
Directive shall not apply to assistance operations carried out by
the Automobile Club of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg where the
accident or the breakdown of a road vehicle has occurred outside the
territory of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the assistance
consists in conveying the vehicle which has been involved in that
accident or breakdown, possibly accompanied by the driver and
passengers, to their home.
Article 7
Mutual
undertakings
This Directive shall
not apply to mutual
undertakings carrying on non-life insurance activities and which
have concluded with other mutual undertakings an agreement which
provides for the full reinsurance of the insurance policies issued
by them or under which the accepting undertaking is to meet the
liabilities arising under such policies in the place of the ceding
undertaking.
In such a case the accepting undertaking shall be
subject to the rules of this Directive.
Article 8
Institutions
This Directive shall
not apply to the
following institutions carrying on non-life insurance activities
unless their statutes or the law are amended as regards
capacity:
(1) In Denmark, Falcks Danmark ;
(2) In
Germany, the following semi-public institutions:
(a)
Postbeamtenkrankenkasse,
(b) Krankenversorgung der
Bundesbahnbeamten;
(3) In Ireland, the Voluntary Health
Insurance Board;
(4) In Spain, the Consorcio de Compensación
de Seguros.
SUBSECTION 3 - LIFE
Article 9
Operations and activities
For
life insurance, this
Directive shall not apply to the following operations and
activities:
(1) operations of provident and mutual-benefit
institutions whose benefits vary according to the resources
available and which require each of their members to contribute at
the appropriate flat rate;
(2) operations carried out by
organisations other than undertakings referred to in Article 2,
whose object is to provide benefits for employed or self-employed
persons belonging to an undertaking or group of undertakings, or a
trade or group of trades, in the event of death or survival or of
discontinuance or curtailment of activity, whether or not the
commitments arising from such operations are fully covered at all
times by mathematical provisions;
(3) the pension activities
of pension insurance undertakings prescribed in the Employees
Pension Act (TyEL) and other related Finnish legislation provided
that:
(a) pension insurance companies which already under
Finnish law are obliged to have separate accounting and management
systems for their pension activities, as from 1 January 1995, set up
separate legal entities for carrying out these
activities;
(b) the Finnish authorities allow in a
non-discriminatory manner all nationals and companies of Member
States to perform according to Finnish legislation the activities
specified in Article 2 related to this exemption whether by means of
ownership or participation in an existing insurance company or group
or by means of creation or participation of new insurance companies
or groups, including pension insurance companies.
Article
10
Organisations, undertakings and institutions
As
far as life insurance is concerned this Directive shall
not apply to
the following organisations, undertakings and institutions:
(1) organisations which undertake to provide benefits solely
in the event of death, where the amount of such benefits does not
exceed the average funeral costs for a single death or where the
benefits are provided in kind;
(2) the "Versorgungsverband
deutscher Wirtschaftsorganisationen" in Germany unless its statutes
are amended as regards the scope of its capacity..
(2a) the
"Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros" in Spain unless its statutes
are amended as regards the scope of its activities
capacity.
  
Return to Index
Solvency ii Introduction (1) to (10)
Solvency ii Introduction (11) to (20)
Solvency ii Introduction (21) to (30)
Solvency ii Introduction (31) to (40)
Solvency ii Introduction (41) to (50)
Solvency ii Introduction (51) to (60)
Solvency ii Introduction (61) to (70)
Solvency ii Introduction (71) to (80)
Solvency ii Introduction (81) to (95)
Solvency ii Articles 1 to 10
Solvency ii Articles 11 to 20
Solvency ii Articles 21 to 30
Solvency ii Articles 31 to 39
Solvency ii Articles 40 to 49
Solvency ii Articles 50 to 62
Solvency ii Articles 63 to 71
Solvency ii Articles 72 to 85
Solvency ii Articles 86 to 99
Solvency ii Articles 100 to 125
Solvency ii Articles 126 to 142
Solvency ii Articles 143 to 159
Solvency ii Articles 160 to 173
Solvency ii Articles 174 to 203
Solvency ii Articles 204 to 215
Solvency ii Articles 216 to 233
Solvency ii Articles 234 to
262
Solvency ii Articles 263 to 298
Solvency ii Articles 300 to 313
Solvency ii ANNEX 1 to 3
Solvency ii ANNEX 4 to 5
|
