Directive 2025/2 - Amendment of Directive 2009/138/EC as regards proportionality, quality of supervision, reporting, long-term guarantee measures, macro-prudential tools, sustainability risks and group and cross-border supervision - Main contents

Official Journal

of the European Union

EN

L series

2025/2

8.1.2025

Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) has created more risk-based and more harmonised prudential rules for the insurance and reinsurance sector. Some of the provisions of that Directive are subject to review clauses. The application of that Directive has substantially contributed to strengthening the financial system in the Union and rendered insurance and reinsurance undertakings more resilient to a variety of risks. Although very comprehensive, that Directive does not address all identified weaknesses affecting insurance and reinsurance undertakings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous socio-economic damage and left the economy of the Union in need of a sustainable, inclusive and fair recovery. Likewise, the economic and social consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine are still unfolding. This has made the work on the Union’s political priorities even more urgent, in particular ensuring that the economy works for people and attaining the objectives of the European Green Deal. The insurance and reinsurance sector can provide private sources of financing to European businesses and can make the economy more resilient by supplying protection against a wide range of risks. With this dual role, the sector has a great potential to contribute to the achievement of the Union’s priorities.

As underlined in the Commission’s communication of 24 September 2020‘A Capital Markets Union for people and businesses’, incentivising institutional investors, in particular insurers, to make more long-term investments will be instrumental in supporting re-equitisation in the corporate sector. To facilitate insurers’ contribution to the financing of the economic recovery of the Union, the prudential framework should be adjusted to better take into account the long-term nature of the insurance business. In particular, when calculating the Solvency Capital Requirement under the standard formula, the possibility to use a more favourable standard parameter for equity investments which are held with a long-term perspective should be facilitated, provided that insurance and reinsurance undertakings comply with sound and robust criteria, that preserve policy holder protection and financial stability. Such criteria should aim to ensure that insurance and reinsurance undertakings are able to avoid forced selling of equities intended to be held for the long term, including under stressed market conditions. As insurance and reinsurance undertakings have a wide variety of risk-management tools to avoid such forced selling, those criteria should recognise such variety and not require the legal or contractual ring-fencing of long-term investment assets in order for insurance and reinsurance undertakings to benefit from the more favourable standard parameter for equity investments. In addition, the insurance or reinsurance undertaking’s...