Insurance Europe calls for end to “highly discriminatory” collateral requirements in context of EU-US bilateral talks

Insurance Europe, the European insurance and reinsurance federation, has described recent negotiations between the EU and the US on a bilateral agreement on re/insurance as encouraging and called for a swift end to what it called highly discriminatory US statutory collateral requirements.

US and EU representatives met in Washington, DC, on December 6-8, 2016, to discuss the bilateral agreement relating to prudential insurance and reinsurance measures including matters relating to group supervision, exchange of confidential information between supervisory authorities on both sides, and reinsurance supervision, including collateral.

A joint statement after the talks said: “US and EU representatives made additional progress and agreed on next steps toward a possible agreement.”

Cristina Mihai, head of international affairs and investments at Insurance Europe, said: "Insurance Europe is encouraged by recent progress made and reaffirms its strong support for a swift conclusion to the negotiations in the coming days, to the benefit of our re/insurers. The agreement should lead to a national uniform treatment of all European re/insurers placing business in the US.

"The current US statutory collateral requirements are highly discriminatory and place European cross-border re/insurers at a significant competitive disadvantage when writing risks in the US. A bilateral agreement between the EU and the US should therefore seek the total elimination of statutory collateral requirements in all US states, and should apply to both in-force and new business.

"A positive conclusion would also represent a strong signal of the longstanding relationship between the EU and the US, and would help support the bilateral trade in (re)insurance, for the benefit of both consumers and our economies."