Consumer protection even before the objective of the stability of the insurance company. The new importance of corporate culture and training in the near future insurance scenario. The support to the traditional prudential supervision of an unprecedented form of conduct supervision. These are three of the conclusions drawn by Domenico Siclari at the conclusion of the Study Conference "The insurance distribution in the Insurance Code", held recently at the Sapienza University of Rome.
A conference that saw various university professors alternating in the first part who focused, in the light of the new regulatory system introduced in Italy by the transposition of the European Directive on the distribution of insurance products (IDD), on some specific aspects also characterized by critical profiles : from the new concept of adequacy of the insurance product to the problems of their distribution with the illustration of the related civil remedies; from the supervisory action on the distribution channels to the analysis of the sanction package in case of violation of the new distribution rules.
After the doctrinal part, a debate enlivened by the various protagonists of the insurance market followed, starting with the Authorities. Stefano de Polis, Secretary General of IVASS, reiterated the primary importance of consumer protection ("consumer first") and announced the development of a system of indicators suitable for signaling possible behavioral problems, "even before or in the absence of critical evidence from consumers". He was echoed by Giovanni Calabrò, General Manager of Agcm, who in recalling the fruitful collaboration with IVASS underlined what has already been done in the past, with a view to consumer protection, to "obviate the practices of forced combinations between personal loans and policies completely unrelated to the credit granted". For her part, Adriana Rossetti, Head of the Regulatory Strategies Division of Consob, again on the subject of coordination and collaboration with IVASS, recalled the forthcoming definition of a protocol between the two Authorities, essential "to give procedural certainty on the supervisory action in compliance of the division of competences”.
The exponents of the insurance and banking trade associations received an examination of the regulatory process of the new rules and of some related possible critical issues. Thus Dario Focarelli, General Manager of ANIA, who, with a view to a unitary discipline by channel and by product, focused on the potential dangers deriving from the simultaneous competition of the two regulations, IDD and Mifid2. For her part, Angela Bracci of the ABI's Capital Market Office, recalling the banking sector's commitment to applying three different regulations (MIFID2, IDD and PRIIPs) united by the purpose of investor protection, illustrated the three most critical areas : product governance, customer profiling and adequacy of information on costs and charges.
The space dedicated to market operators recorded the conviction of Fabio Carniol, Chief Executive Officer of Helvetia Vita and Chiara Assicurazioni, regarding "the orientation of the banking and insurance worlds towards long-term strategic partnership forms" with the configuration, on the subject of governance product, of "joint technical-commercial commissions through which to share distribution strategies, analysis of targets and outcomes of product placement".
A strategic vision shared by Michela Del Piero, President of Banca di Cividale, who also noted, both "the accentuated growth of the insurance business in the overall one of her bank (with a weight in the industrial plan shot up from 1% to 10%)”, and the disruptive impact of digital transformation in the world of bancassurance.
The testimonies of the operators concluded with the intervention of Gian Piero Mosca, Director of AON Benfield, who, with specific reference to the automotive sector, focused on the configuration of the so-called de facto manufacturer in the context of an "insurance scenario revolutionized compared to traditional canons” and marked by the possible overcoming of comparators and by the real-time listing of the broker's product by individual companies.
