EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, XXX COM(2012) 360 ... - BVVM
EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, XXX COM(2012) 360 ... - BVVM
EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, XXX COM(2012) 360 ... - BVVM
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participants involved in the selling of insurance products and at strengthening<br />
policyholder protection.<br />
The overarching objectives of the current review are undistorted competition,<br />
consumer protection and market integration. In concrete terms, the IMD2 project<br />
should achieve the following improvements: expand the scope of application of<br />
IMD1 to all distribution channels (e.g. direct writers, car rentals, etc.); identify,<br />
manage and mitigate conflicts of interest; raise the level of harmonisation of<br />
administrative sanctions and measures for breach of key provisions of the current<br />
Directive; enhance the suitability and objectiveness of advice; ensure sellers'<br />
professional qualifications match the complexity of products sold; simplify and<br />
approximate the procedure for cross-border entry to insurance markets across the<br />
EU.<br />
1.2. Consistency with other policies and objectives of the Union<br />
The objectives of the proposal are consistent with the policies and objectives pursued<br />
by the Union. The Treaty provides for action to ensure the establishment and<br />
functioning of the internal market with a high level of consumer protection as well as<br />
the freedom to provide services.<br />
The current proposal is tabled for adoption as part of a 'Consumer Retail Package'<br />
together with the PRIPs proposal on investment products' disclosures and UCITS V.<br />
The PRIPs initiative aims at ensuring a coherent horizontal approach to product<br />
disclosure with regard to investment products and insurance products with<br />
investment elements (so-called insurance PRIPs 4 ), and provisions on selling practices<br />
will be included in the revisions of the IMD1 and MiFID.<br />
The proposal is furthermore consistent with, and complementary to, other EU<br />
legislation and policies, particularly in the areas of consumer protection, investor<br />
protection and prudential supervision, such as Solvency II, MiFID II, and the PRIPs<br />
initiative.<br />
IMD2 will regulate selling practices for all insurance products from general<br />
insurance products such as motor insurance, through to life insurance policies,<br />
including those which contain investment elements, e.g. unit-linked life insurance<br />
products.<br />
IMD2 would continue to have the features of a 'minimum harmonisation' legal<br />
instrument. This means that Member States may decide to go further if necessary for<br />
the purposes of consumer protection. However, the minimum standards of IMD1 will<br />
be raised significantly. Some parts of the new Directive will be reinforced by Level 2<br />
measures in order to align the rules with MiFID: in particular, in the chapter<br />
regulating the distribution of life insurance policies with investment elements.<br />
4 See the scope in the Impact Assessment on PRIPs: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/finservicesretail/docs/investment_products/29042009_impact_assessment_en.pdf<br />
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