The European Insurance and Occupational Pension Authority (Eiopa) has agreed with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and the Bank of England memoranda of understandings (MoUs) to keep cooperating even in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
The two memoranda, that will take effect if the UK leaves the European Union without an agreement, regard supervisory cooperation, enforcement and information exchange between the bodies.
The first one is a multilateral agreement between the UK and EEA authorities, and the second one is a bilateral memorandum between Eiopa and the UK alone.
Simon Willoughby, managing director of Acuity Consulting, told International Adviser: “The MoUs keeps the door open to continued regulatory discussions, exchanges of information and general cooperation in the event of a no-deal Brexit, but appears to stop short of guaranteeing that EU passporting will continue as now.”
“These MoUs contribute to meet our primary objective of protecting policyholders and beneficiaries in the EEA member states and the UK, in case of ‘no-deal’ Brexit scenario,” said Gabriel Bernadino, chairman of Eiopa.
“They will ensure a continuous strong and close cooperation with our UK colleagues in any scenario.”
Relationships will continue
Sam Woods, deputy governor and chief executive of the PRA, said: “We have agreed MoUs with Eiopa and EU member states which will ensure our continued cooperation in carrying out our supervisory responsibilities.”
According to Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the FCA, the agreement happened because the “EU and UK insurance markets will remain interconnected in any scenario and therefore continued cooperation with our EU counterparts is of the upmost importance.”
Eiopa said that the agreement’s aim is “to maintain sound prudential and conduct supervision over (re)insurance undertakings and groups based either in the UK or in an EEA member state, with cross-border business activities in the EEA or the UK respectively; and to maintain financial stability of the financial markets within the EEA and/or the UK”.
