IVASS updates regarding insurance intermediaries

IVASS has issued Provision No. 128 dated 20th February 2023, which introduces amendments and additions to IVASS Regulation No. 40 of the 2nd August 2018, on insurance and reinsurance distribution provisions, pursuant to Title IX (General Distribution Provisions) of the CAP (Private Insurance Code).

The Provision amends the Regulation solely with regards to Articles 5, 6, 17, 22, 26, 38, 41, 48, 78 and 84.

This intervention serves two purposes: 

 to adapt the content of the provisions on academic qualifications, by removing references to the five-year period and integrative year, so as to make the regulations consistent with the current schooling system;

  1. To oblige intermediaries registered in the RUI or in the Directory annexed thereto, who promote and sell insurance contracts by remote communication techniques, to notify IVASS of the internet domain and sub-domain, if any, used to this end for publication in the Register of Insurance and Reinsurance Intermediaries.

 The first amendment concerns the modification of the regulatory content, which sets forth the mandatory possession of a qualification of no less than the upper secondary school diploma following a five-year or four-year course supplemented by the annual course required by law or an equivalent qualification, in accordance with the primary regulations that are already in force.

The second amendment envisages the obligation for intermediaries – operating on Italian territory by virtue of being registered in the Italian Register or included in the Annexed List – to notify IVASS of the internet domain and sub-domain, if any, used for the promotion and sale of insurance contracts by means of remote communication techniques. The obligation also applies in cases of internet-only promotions. Its aim is to limit the growth of irregular internet sites and to protect consumers and intermediaries. Given that IVASS thereby has a list of the domains and sub-domains of regular intermediaries, it may wish to consider the possibility of publishing this list on its institutional website as a ‘white list’, thus increasing the accreditation level of intermediaries and ensuring greater consumer protection.