The Solvency ii
Directive
Article
21
Policy conditions and scales of premiums
1. Member
States shall not require the prior approval or systematic
notification of general and special policy conditions, of scales of
premiums, of the technical bases, used in particular for calculating
scales of premiums and technical provisions, or of forms and other
printed documents which an undertaking intends to use in its
dealings with policyholder or ceding or retro-ceding
undertakings.
However, for life insurance and for the sole
purpose of verifying compliance with national provisions concerning
actuarial principles, the home Member State may require systematic
notification of the technical bases used for calculating scales of
premiums and technical provisions. That requirement shall not
constitute a prior condition for the authorisation of a life
insurance undertaking.
2. Member States shall
not retain or
introduce prior notification or approval of proposed increases in
premium rates except as part of general price-control
systems.
3. Member States may subject undertakings seeking or
having obtained authorisation for class 18 in point A of Annex I to
checks on their direct or indirect resources in staff and equipment,
including the qualification of their medical teams and the
quality
of the equipment available to such undertakings to meet their
commitments arising out of that class.
4. Member States may
maintain in force or introduce laws, regulations or administrative
provisions requiring approval of the memorandum and articles of
association and communication of any other documents necessary for
the normal exercise of supervision.
Article
22
Economic requirements of the market
Member
States shall not require that any application for authorisation be
considered in the light of the economic requirements of the
market.
Article 23
Scheme of
operations
1. The scheme of operations referred to in
point (c) of Article 18(1) shall include particulars or evidence
of
the following:
(a) the nature of the risks or commitments
which the insurance or reinsurance undertaking concerned proposes to
cover;
(b) the kind of reinsurance arrangements which the
reinsurance undertaking proposes to make with ceding
undertakings;
(c) the guiding principles as to reinsurance
and to retrocession;
(d) the basic own fund items
constituting the absolute floor of the Minimum Capital
Requirement;
(e) estimates of the costs of setting up the
administrative services and the organisation for securing business;
the financial resources intended to meet those costs and, if the
risks to be covered are classified in class 18 in point A of Annex
I, the resources at the disposal of the insurance undertaking for
the provision of the assistance promised.
2. In addition to
the requirements set out in paragraph 1, for the first three
financial years the scheme shall include the following:
(a) a
forecast balance sheet;
(b) estimates of the future Solvency
Capital Requirement, as provided for in Chapter VI, Section 4,
Subsection 1, on the basis of the forecast balance sheet referred to
in point (a), as well as the method of calculation used to derive
those estimates;
(c) estimates of the future Minimum Capital
Requirement, as provided for in Articles 126 and 127, on the basis
of the forecast balance sheet referred to in point (a), as well as
the method of calculation used to derive those estimates;
(d)
estimates of the financial resources intended to cover technical
provisions, the Minimum Capital Requirement and the Solvency Capital
Requirement;
(e) for non-life insurance and reinsurance also
the following:
(i) estimates of management expenses other
than installation costs, in particular current general expenses and
commissions;
(ii) estimates of premiums or contributions and
claims;
(f) for life insurance also a plan setting out
detailed estimates of income and expenditure in respect of direct
business, reinsurance acceptances and reinsurance
cessions.
Article 24
Shareholders and members with
qualifying holdings
1. The supervisory authorities of the
home Member State shall not grant to an undertaking an authorisation
to take up the business of insurance or reinsurance
before they have
been informed of the identities of the shareholders or members,
direct or indirect, whether natural or legal persons, who have
qualifying holdings in that undertaking and of the amounts of those
holdings.
Those authorities shall refuse authorisation if,
taking into account the need to ensure the sound and prudent
management of an insurance or reinsurance undertaking, they are not
satisfied as to the qualifications of the shareholders or
members.
2. For the purposes of paragraph 1, the
voting
rights referred to in Articles 9 and 10 of Directive 2004/109/EC, as
well as the conditions regarding aggregation thereof laid down in
Article 12(4) and (5) of that Directive, shall be
taken into
account.
Member States shall not take into account voting
rights or shares which investment firms or credit institutions may
hold as a result of providing the underwriting of financial
instruments and/or placing of financial instruments on a firm
commitment basis included under point 6 of Section A of Annex I to
Directive 2004/39/EC, provided that those rights are, on the one
hand, not exercised or otherwise used to intervene in the management
of the issuer and, on the other, disposed of within one year of the
acquisition.
Article 25
Refusal of
authorisation
Any decision to refuse an authorisation
shall be accompanied by the precise grounds for doing so and
notified to the undertaking concerned.
Each Member State
shall make provision for a right to apply to the courts where an
authorisation is refused.
Such provision shall also be made
with regard to cases where the supervisory authorities have not
dealt with an application for an authorisation within six months of
the date of its receipt.
Article 26
Prior
consultation with the authorities of other Member States
1.
The supervisory authorities of the other Member State involved shall
be consulted prior to the granting of an authorisation to an
undertaking, which is any of the following:
(a) a subsidiary
of an insurance or reinsurance undertaking authorised in another
Member State;
(b) a subsidiary of the parent undertaking of
an insurance or reinsurance undertaking authorised in another Member
State;
(c) an undertaking controlled by the same person,
whether natural or legal, who controls an insurance or reinsurance
undertaking authorised in another Member State.
2. The
authorities of a Member State involved which are responsible for the
supervision of credit institutions or investment firms shall be
consulted prior to the granting of an authorisation to an insurance
or reinsurance undertaking which is any of the following:
(a)
a subsidiary of a credit institution or investment firm authorised
in the Community;
(b) a subsidiary of the parent undertaking
of a credit institution or investment firm authorised in the
Community;
(c) an undertaking controlled by the same person,
whether natural or legal, who controls a credit institution or
investment firm authorised in the Community.
3. The relevant
authorities referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall in particular
consult each other when assessing the suitability of the
shareholders and the fit and proper requirements of all persons who
effectively run the undertaking or have other key functions involved
in the management of another entity of the same group.
They
shall inform each other of any information regarding the suitability
of shareholders and the fit and proper requirements of all persons
who effectively run the undertaking or have other key functions
which is of relevance to the other competent authorities involved
for the granting of an authorisation as well as for the ongoing
assessment of compliance with operating
conditions.
CHAPTER III
SUPERVISORY AUTHORITIES
AND GENERAL RULES
Article 27
Main objective of
supervision
Member States shall ensure that the supervisory
authorities are provided with the necessary means, and have the
relevant expertise and capacity, and mandate to achieve the main
objective of supervision, namely the protection of policyholders and
beneficiaries.
Article 27a
Maintaining financial
stability and pro-cyclicality
Without prejudice to the main
objective of supervision as set out in Article 27 Member States
shall ensure that, in the exercise of their general duties,
supervisory authorities shall duly consider the potential impact of
their decisions on the stability of the financial systems concerned
in the European Union, in particular in emergency situations, taking
into account the information available at the relevant
time.
In times of exceptional movements in the financial
markets, supervisory authorities shall take into account the
potential procyclical effects of their actions.
Article
28
General principles of supervision
1. Supervision
shall be based on a prospective and risk-based approach. It shall
include the verification on a continuous basis of the proper
operation of the insurance or reinsurance business and of the
compliance with supervisory provisions by insurance and reinsurance
undertakings.
2. Supervision of insurance and reinsurance
undertakings shall comprise an appropriate combination of
off-site
activities and on-site inspections.
3. Member States shall
ensure that the requirements laid down in this Directive are applied
in a manner which is proportionate to the nature, complexity and
scale of the risks inherent in the business of an insurance or
reinsurance undertaking.
3a. The Commission shall ensure
implementing measures include the principle of proportionality, thus
ensuring the proportionate application of this Directive, in
particular to very small insurance undertakings.
Article
29
Supervisory authorities and scope of supervision
1.
The financial supervision of insurance and reinsurance undertakings,
including that of the business they carry on either through branches
or under the freedom to provide services, shall be the
sole
responsibility of the home Member State.
2. Financial
supervision pursuant to paragraph 1 shall include
verification, with
respect to the entire business of the insurance and reinsurance
undertaking, of its state of solvency, of the establishment of
technical provisions, of its assets and of the eligible own funds,
in accordance with the rules laid down or practices followed in the
Member State under provisions adopted at Community
level.
Where the insurance undertaking concerned is
authorised to cover the risks classified in class 18 in point A of
Annex I, supervision shall extend to monitoring
of the technical
resources which the insurance undertaking has at its disposal for
the purpose of carrying out the assistance operations it has
undertaken to perform, where the law of the home Member State
provides for the monitoring of such resources.
3. If the
supervisory authorities of the Member State where the risk is
situated or of the commitment or,
in case of a reinsurance
undertaking, of the host Member State have reason to consider that
the activities of an insurance or reinsurance undertaking might
affect its financial soundness, they shall inform the supervisory
authorities of the home Member State of that undertaking.
The
supervisory authorities of the home Member State shall determine
whether the undertaking is complying with the prudential principles
laid down in this Directive.
Article
30
Transparency and accountability
1. The supervisory
authorities shall conduct their tasks in a transparent and
accountable manner with due respect for the protection of
confidential information.
2. Member States shall ensure that
the following information is disclosed:
(a) the texts of
laws, regulations, administrative rules and general guidance in the
field of insurance regulation;
(b) the general criteria and
methods, including the tools developed in accordance with Article
34(4), used in the supervisory review process as set out in Article
36;
(c) aggregate statistical data on key aspects of the
application of the prudential framework;
(d) the manner of
exercise of the options provided for in this Directive;
(e)
the objectives of the supervision and its main functions and
activities.
The disclosure, provided for in the first
subparagraph shall be sufficient to enable a comparison of the
supervisory approaches adopted by the supervisory authorities of the
different Member States.
The disclosure shall be made in a
common format and be updated regularly. The information referred to
in points (a) to (e) of the first subparagraph shall be accessible
at a single electronic location in each Member State.
3.
Member States shall provide for transparent procedures regarding the
appointment and dismissal of the members of the governing and
managing bodies of their supervisory authorities.
4. The
Commission shall adopt implementing measures relating to paragraph 2
specifying the key aspects on which aggregate statistical data are
to be disclosed, and the format, structure, contents list and
publication date of the disclosures.
Those measures designed
to amend non-essential elements of this Directive shall be adopted
in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred
to in Article 304(3).
  
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
|
