On 24 April 2020, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) issued new guidelines on outsourcing to cloud service providers (the "Guidelines") which apply to insurance and reinsurance undertakings, supplementing the general regulatory framework based on the Solvency II Directive and Delegated Regulation 2015/35.
Pursuant to Article 16(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1094/2010 establishing the EIOPA, which requires the competent authorities of the EU Member States to make every effort to comply with EIOPA guidelines and confirm that they intend to comply with them, the Benelux regulators have indicated their intention to apply the Guidelines.
In Belgium, the prudential regulator for the insurance and reinsurance sector, the National Bank of Belgium ("NBB"), published a circular on 5 May 2020 (NBB_2020_018) implementing the Guidelines and clarifying the NBB's recommendations on outsourcing to cloud service providers active in the sector (available here).
For many years, the prudential regulator of the Netherlands, the Dutch National Bank ("DNB"), has been actively been focusing on outsourcing by financial institutions, including insurance companies, to cloud service providers. EIOPA guidelines are deemed authoritative by the DNB, taken into account by the DNB and often form the basis for the DNB's own recommendations. One example is the DNB's Good Practice document for outsourcing insurers, issued in May 2019. In this document, the DNB refers extensively to the outsourcing provisions of the EIOPA Guidelines on System of Governance. The DNB applies these guidelines, specifically when supervising cloud outsourcing, to supplement the Good Practices. The DNB has indicated that it expects insurers to apply the Guidelines from 1 January 2021 to all cloud outsourcing agreements entered into or amended on or after this date.
In Luxembourg, the supervisory authority for the insurance sector, the Commissariat aux Assurances ("CA"), confirmed in Circular 20/13 of 24 June 2020 that it will fully apply the Guidelines. Luxembourg insurance and reinsurance undertakings are therefore required to abide by the Guidelines. On this occasion, the Luxembourg regulator also recalled that outsourcing operations must comply with the obligation of professional secrecy set out in Article 300 of the amended Act of 7 December 2015 on the insurance sector.
For further information about the scope, requirements and timeline for implementation of the Guidelines, please refer to our article on the EIOPA Guidelines on outsourcing to cloud service providers by insurance and reinsurance undertakings.
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