International Insurance Relations (G) Committee
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
3:30 PM CDT
McCormick Place Convention Center—Grand Ballroom—Level 1
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EU-U.S. Dialogue Project
Background
Last Updated: 7/25/2024
For well over twenty years, the NAIC and state insurance regulators have regularly taken part in ongoing U.S.-EU insurance regulatory dialogues on various topical issues of mutual regulatory concern. Together, U.S. and European Union (EU) regulators oversee approximately two-thirds of the global insurance market. Enhanced cross-border cooperation and regulatory modernization is important to ensure our regulatory communities are equipped to face global challenges that arise. These recurring dialogues have led to more harmonized regulatory approaches where appropriate and fostered mutual trust and understanding amongst regulators of different jurisdictions. Moreover, the dialogues have established the basis on which to build new cooperation projects. A EU-U.S. Insurance Dialogue Project began in January 2012 with the objective of enhancing understanding and cooperation for the benefit of insurance consumers, business opportunity and effective supervision.
In January 2012, the NAIC, the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Commission (EC) agreed to participate in the EU-U.S. Insurance Dialogue Project ("Project"). The Project was established to deepen insight into the overall design, function and objectives of the key aspects of the insurance regulatory regimes in the U.S. and EU and to identify important characteristics of both regimes. The Project is led by a steering committee that includes four top supervisory officials from the U.S. and four from the EU. The Steering Committee chooses key topics they consider to be fundamentally important to a sound regulatory regime that protects policyholders and financial stability.
In December 2012, a comprehensive draft report on the commonalities and differences between the jurisdictions in key areas of supervision was released: "EU-U.S. Dialogue Project Technical Committee Reports Comparing Certain Aspects of the Insurance Supervisory and Regulatory Regimes in the European Union and the United States." Based on the report, the Steering Committee also agreed on a "Way Forward" (updated in 2014) plan through 2017 that outlined common objectives and initiatives for the parties to be pursued over the next five years, in addition to hosting regular public events.
In 2018-2019, the Project emphasized cybersecurity, big data, and intragroup transactions, publishing objectives and deliverables. Despite the 2020 public event's postponement due to COVID-19, the Project released papers detailing its working groups' efforts in these areas. A 2021 webinar by the NAIC, FIO, and EIOPA highlighted the Project's ongoing work and future goals.
Actions
In 2022-2023, the Project mainly focused on the following three topics:
(1) climate risk financial oversight, including climate risk disclosures, supervisory reporting, and other financial surveillance;
(2) climate risk and resilience, including innovative technology, pre-disaster mitigation and adaptation efforts, and modelling; and
(3) technology and innovation, including big data and artificial intelligence (AI), and SupTech as a regulatory tool.
The Project’s Steering Committees held a public stakeholder event in June 2023 in Seattle, Washington alongside the IAIS Annual meeting and published summary reports of the discussions for each of the workstreams. The materials, reports, and a recording are all available on the NAIC's website.
The next public stakeholder event is expected to be in 2025.
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