The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) publishes two new educational brochures to inform the sector and the consumers. These brochures explain the rules of the European IDD Directive, which governs the distribution of insurance products. They provide customers with a better understanding of the mechanisms introduced by the IDD Directive to safeguard their interests when buying insurance products or insurance-based investment products.
In 2020, the FSMA published a first educational brochure summarizing the rules of MiFID I and MiFID II[1]. The brochure aimed at raising consumers’ awareness of their rights and of the obligations binding on the firms that provide investment services to them. Today, the FSMA publishes two new information brochures focusing on the distribution of insurance products.
The European Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) contains a set of rules aimed at providing customers with a better protection within the framework of the distribution of insurance products. Today, the FSMA published two brochures regarding that Directive. The first one, entitled 'The IDD Directive: better protection for consumer interests. Focus on insurance products', summarizes the rules applicable to insurance products in the classical meaning of the term.
Furthermore, the IDD contains additional requirements that solely apply to insurance-based investment products (or IBIPs). These products are discussed in a separate brochure, entitled 'The IDD Directive: better protection for consumer interests. Focus on insurance-based investment products'.
Each brochure explains the various obligations binding on the distributors of the products concerned, both before concluding an insurance contract and during its term. These brochures respond to the needs of both the insurance sector and consumers, confirms Jean-Paul Servais, Chairman of the FSMA: 'As a supervisory authority, the FSMA is more than just a watchdog. Supervision and curbing infringements are obviously part of its main tasks, but it also wants to give guidance to the actors active in the sector. It does so by providing them with clear information that enables them to better understand and assimilate their various obligations. At the same time, the FSMA wishes to provide consumers with accessible information so that they are aware of their rights regarding insurance. These two new brochures fully meet the requirements of both target groups.'
[1] MiFID is the abbreviation of the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. MiFID I and MiFID II are European legal texts that entered into force in 2007 and 2018 respectively. They regulate the services regarding financial instruments provided by regulated companies.