Insurance Europe urges EU to address ‘excessive’ reporting requirements

Written by Michael Griffiths

13/09/2023

European insurers are calling on the EU to tackle “excessive” requirements around reporting.

Insurance Europe has written to the European Commission calling for its forthcoming EU initiative to not only reduce existing reporting requirements, but ensure that any new reporting is “kept to an absolute minimum, proportionate, simpler, and more consistent across EU regulation”.

The 37-member strong federation also stated it would like to see insurance companies have sufficient time for implementing any requirements.

Director-general for Insurance Europe, Michaela Koller, welcomed the initial announcement in March earlier this year by European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to simplify and reduce reporting by 25%.

With the package expected to be unveiled by the European Commission in the coming weeks, Insurance Europe’s director-general said: “We urge the Commission to recognise that this burden is created not only by too many reporting requirements, but also by duplications and overlaps across different pieces of legislation, lack of sufficient time to implement the requirements, as well as lack of clarity and timely provisions of Q&As.”

The industry, she added, needed EU reporting to be simplified and consistent across EU regulations that affected the industry, such as Solvency II, sustainability reporting as well as the upcoming Retail Investment Strategy.

Koller further said: “Every new reporting requirement, or change to a reporting requirement, generates the need for IT projects data sourcing, validation processes, and management interpretation and review.

“This negatively impacts customers, for example through higher costs. It redirects often scarce expertise away from conducting key activities such as risk management or innovation to reporting on them and puts the European insurance industry at a competitive disadvantage internationally.”

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