Last Updated 3/3/2023

Issue: For well over a decade, 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.

Overview: 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.

The Project’s work in 2018-2019 focused on cybersecurity, the use of big data, and intragroup transactions. In March 2018 the Project published new initiatives outlining objectives, outcomes and deliverables for these three areas through 2019.  Although the Project's public event (scheduled for March 2020) was postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Project published papers in February 2020 outlining the work of its working groups during the previous year on cyber insurance, cybersecurity and big data.

In October 2021, the Steering Committee of the Project hosted a public virtual webinar on its continued progress and future priorities. Representatives of the NAIC, FIO and EIOPA hosted the webinar.  Summary reports of the work conducted by the Project’s working groups during 2020-2021 can be found at the following link: /government-affairs-eu-us-webinar.htm.

Status: In 2022, the Project mainly focuses 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 working groups will be producing a summary report of the discussions by the end of 2022. Additionally, a public Project Forum is expected to take place in 2023.