Insurers and reinsurers in Europe have called upon the European Commission to renew the Insurance Block Exemption Regulation, which exempts insurers from certain European Union competition rules, when it expires in March 2017.
A public comment period on the IBER ends Tuesday.
Insurance Europe, the Brussels-based association that represents insurers and reinsurers in Europe, called for the exemption to be retained in its submission to the European Commission.
The IBER allows insurers and reinsurers to form pools to cover certain hard-to-insure risks, and to cooperate on joint studies and compilation of data, among other things.
“The competition fostered by the IBER has an important impact on insurance coverage and pricing,” said William Vidonja, head of single market and social affairs at Insurance Europe, said in a statement Tuesday. “It opens up markets for new competitors and so results in more choice in terms of insurance suppliers and products for policyholders.”
The Federation of European Risk Management Associations also has called upon the European Commission to renew the current IBER.
(Reuters) — The European Union's trio of new financial watchdogs should have more powers over banks, insurers and markets to ensure national regulators apply E.U. rules, the bloc's executive body said on Friday in a review that may raise hackles in Britain.