The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published today procedures for how it will issue warnings and temporary prohibitions and restrictions regarding financial activities. The procedures are a key component of EIOPA’s strategic objectives in the area of crisis management and consumer protection/financial innovation.
Under its founding Regulation, EIOPA may issue different types of instruments where financial activities threaten EIOPA’s objective to contribute to the stability and effectiveness of the financial system. As such, EIOPA can issue warnings in the event that a financial activity poses a serious threat to its objectives. Moreover, the Authority may also temporarily prohibit or restrict certain financial activities that threaten the orderly functioning and integrity of financial markets or the stability of the financial system.
The procedures have been adopted with a view to ensuring legal certainty in the process of adopting any warnings or temporary prohibitions/restrictions by establishing a basic framework for any future action. In doing so, the procedures lay down the steps to be followed for identifying threats and initiating the further assessment process within EIOPA. Moreover, the procedures lay down the rights and obligations of the addressees of any warnings or temporary measures, how such warnings and measures will be communicated, their duration and review provisions.
The procedures outline the steps to be taken both in the case of warnings and temporary prohibitions and restrictions. It is noted, however, that as regards the temporary measures, the EIOPA Regulation foresees that such measures can only be issued where sectoral legislation sets the specific conditions for doing so. At the moment, there is no such sectoral legislation in the insurance and occupational pension area. The document can be viewed under the following link: https://eiopa.europa.eu/activities/consumer-protection-and-financial-innovation/index.html (Link: https://eiopa.europa.eu/activities/consumer-protection-and-financial-innovation/index.html )
