Authorisation of insurance joint-stock companies for the pursuit of reinsurance business

On 1 March 2017, BaFin published an updated guidance notice with guidelines and explanatory notes on the authorisation procedure and authorisation requirements for undertakings intending to engage in reinsurance business only.¹ Among other things, the guidance notice provides details of the documentation and information that companies must submit to BaFin with an application for authorisation to conduct business. A number of specific requirements apply to reinsurance undertakings and these are addressed by the guidance notice. The guidance notice replaces the corresponding publication from 2008 and updates the advice and explanatory notes to reflect the changes in the legal situation. An English-language version of the guidance notice is also available on BaFin's website.²

Authorisation of insurance joint-stock companies for the pursuit of health insurance business

On 10 March 2017, BaFin also published a new guidance notice with guidelines for the authorisation of insurance joint-stock companies for the pursuit of health insurance business as primary insurance undertakings in Germany.³ The guidance notice provides details of the documentation and information that companies must submit to BaFin to enable it to assess whether it is able to grant authorisation. It also sets out the special requirements applying to small insurance undertakings within the meaning of section 211 of the Insurance Supervision Act. The guidance notice replaces the old version from 2006. The revision was necessitated by the implementation of Solvency II into German law.

Update of the guidelines on reporting

BaFin updated the guidelines on reporting for primary insurance and reinsurance undertakings and insurance groups and published them in December 2017.⁴ In contrast to the most recent update in March 2017, the elements of narrative reporting were the main focus this time. BaFin included in the update its experience with the Solvency and Financial Condition Report mentioned above, which was required to be published for the first time in 2017. BaFin also addressed questions on Solvency II reporting from the primary insurers and reinsurers as well as the insurance groups. The guidelines only deal with technical matters and are regularly revised and updated.

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