IVASS launches consultations on IBIPs

The Italian insurance regulator is promoting a wide-ranging regulatory review concerning insurance based investment products, updating some rules applicable to such products.

More in details, the Italian regulator launched a consultation on a new regulation aimed at:

• Replacing the regime of eligible assets of linked policies (dating back to 2002 for unit-linked, and 2009 for index-linked);
• Reinforcing the requirement of the so called “demographic risk” for linked policies, introduced by earlier regulations in a very generic form.

At first sight, the new regulations on eligible assets update the applicable rules to overcome mismatches with the financial services regulations, which evolved in the past 20 years, and aim to align the provisions on unit-linked products to those applicable to UCITS funds. While this approach is in line with recent regulatory trends, it may end-up limiting the ability of insurers to seek for alternative underlying investments to accommodate the peculiar needs of their investors, which are not always the same of an investor purchasing units of a UCITS scheme (primary legislation only required that the insurance regulatory regime is not more restrictive than the UCITS regime). It also must be noted that the new regime would apply to all IBIPs policies taken-out by individuals, without a classification of the investor in the categories used in the investment services sector (retail vs professional clients).

In addition, IVASS is launching a wider discussion with the market for the purposes of (i) providing more detailed guidance around the “demographic risk” which is required for IBIPs products (an issue very frequently discussed before Italian Courts, in civil as well as tax disputes), and (ii) extending the application of certain provisions about the calculation of profits in for-profit policies connected to a segregated assets pool (polizze rivalutabili sulla base dei risultati di una gestione separata).

In IVASS view, most of new rules are intended to apply not only to Italian insurance companies, but also to EU ones, operating in Italy under freedom of establishment or freedom of services regime.

Stakeholders are invited to provide their feedback within 9 June 2022. Norton Rose Fulbright (Milan) is available to discuss the above, in view of its participation to the public consultation. For more information, please contact salvatore.iannitti@nortonrosefulbright.com

We will organise a webinar shortly to discuss the new proposed regulation. 

Please find below the documents published by IVASS:

Consultation document no. 3/2022 on unit and index linked life insurance policies

Discussion paper no. 1/2022 on Preliminary considerations for future regulatory interventions on life insurance