How to comply with FinSA regulations if you are an insurance intermediary

Duty to register when offering pillar 2 and pillar 3a pension solutions

The FinSA contains cross-sectoral conduct rules (including so called ‘point of sale’ conduct rules) for financial service providers and for client advisers of financial service providers when advising investment clients. It requires an entry in a register of advisers which in particular ensures that financial service providers and client advisers possess the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to perform their work.

The scope of application of the duty to register under FinSA causes significant challenges in practice with regard to insurance intermediaries when offering pillar 2 and pillar 3a pension solutions (including 1e pension plans). The questions are whether and when insurance intermediaries are required to be entered into a register of advisers pursuant to FinSA.

Many insurance intermediaries are uncertain about the current regulatory situation regarding the duty to be entered into a register of advisers pursuant to FinSA. These uncertainties have led to different opinions and applications of the duty to register in practice. In the event of misinterpretation of the existing regulatory framework, insurance intermediaries are at risk of non-compliance with FinSA duties resulting in an increase of regulatory risk exposure.

To support insurance intermediaries in tackling the upcoming challenges, we address in our whitepaper the above questions and thus the circumstances in which they must comply with FinSA duties and in particular when an entry in a register of advisers is required. Here we focus in particular on the following key questions:

When do insurance intermediaries fall within the scope of FinSA?
When is the activity a financial service?
Is the activity related to any financial instrument?

How can PwC support you?

As your trusted partner, we’re on hand for an in-depth discussion to address and assess your needs, so we can jointly develop a riskbased, tailored and proportionate solution to strengthen your organisation in a sustainable manner.

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Are you as an insurance intermediary, ready to face the new FinSA duties? Please have a read through our whitepaper, which provides a more in-depth view on the topic.

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