EIOPA publisghes Guidelines on Complaints-Handling by Insurers

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)
published today its first set of Guidelines with a view to establishing
consistent, efficient and effective supervisory practices and ensuring
common, uniform and consistent application of EU law.

The Guidelines in question cover complaints-handling by insurance companies
and seek to address two current areas of concern:


Information asymmetry - insurers may not handle complaints in the best
interests of policyholders, or policyholders may not know the standards to
which insurers should adhere and may not be aware of the possibility to
submit a complaint;

An existing regulatory gap – a current lack of EU rules on
complaints-handling by insurance companies, leading to a diverse number of
national approaches and a potentially unlevel playing field. These
Guidelines seek to promote a more convergent approach.

The Guidelines, which are high-level principles and are addressed to
competent supervisory authorities only, aim to provide guidance on
appropriate internal systems and control for complaints-handling by
insurers (such as having a complaints management policy and complaints
management function in place) and render them more effective, and provide
guidance on the provision of information and procedures for responding to
complaints, thereby ensuring the adequate protection of policyholders and
beneficiaries.

Since the Guidelines are high-level principles, they have been supplemented
by a more detailed Best Practices Report, which seeks to promote common
supervisory approaches and practices regarding internal systems and
controls and internal follow-up of complaints. EIOPA appreciates the
importance of proportionality in applying these Guidelines to
different-sized insurance undertakings and aims to consider this as part
of a follow-up initiative.

Gabriel Bernardino, Chairman of EIOPA, said: "With these Guidelines, EIOPA
aims to take an important step towards promoting more transparency,
simplicity and fairness in the market for consumer financial products and
services and thereby enhance consumer protection, one of our key
objectives. The Guidelines fill an important regulatory gap and we expect
competent supervisory authorities to make every effort to comply with
them. We will be monitoring compliance with these Guidelines closely in
the months ahead"

Click here to access Guidelines on Complaints-Handling by Insurance
Undertakings (Link:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/publications/eiopa-guidelines/index.html )

Click here to access Report on Best Practices by Insurance Undertakings in
handling complaints (Link:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/publications/reports/index.html )

Click here to see Summary of the main issues from Consultation on
Complaints-Handling and Impact Assessment on Guidelines on
complaints-handling by insurance undertakings (Link:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/consultations/consultation-papers/2011-closed-consultations/november-2011/guidelines-on-complaints-handling-by-insurance-undertakings/index.html
)


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