Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe signed a statutory instrument which transposes the changes of the ESA-Review to Solvency II (Art. 2 of the ESA-Review Directive, Directive (EU) 2019/2177) on Friday.

The European Union (Insurance and Reinsurance) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (S.I. No. 240/2021) amend the European Union (Insurance and Reinsurance) Regulations 2015 (S.I. No. 485/2015 – the Solvency II Regulations) and come into operation on 30 June 2021. The notice of the Regulations was published in Friday’s Iris Oifigiúil.

The amendments target the relationship between the Central Bank of Ireland and EIOPA and mainly concern cross-border supervision and the establishment of cross-border platforms. The new provisions address the information exchange at the moment of receival of an application by a national competent authority, the establishment of cross-border platforms and the sharing of information on these platforms. The Irish insurance industry suggested this approach to avoid further regulatory imbalances for FoS/FoE business models operating out of Ireland which were suggested by some bigger Member States. The implemented changes were considered a step in the right direction.

However, Insurance Ireland and its members are pushing for a more integrated solution under the current Solvency II review which should limit the administrative burden and transform the platforms into standing digital vehicles for the exchange of regularly available data (instead of multiple individual requests). In return, the Irish insurance industry requests that provisions of discriminatory nature for FoS/FoE business models (as suggested by EIOPA) are avoided. For further information, please, see our priority positions on the Solvency II Review, here