The impact of evolving EU regulations on insurance underwriting

Abstract

We are all aware of the voluminous laws, rules and regulations that dictate the business environment. For the insurance industry, compliance with such legislation and regulation is a change that market players need to become accustomed to, especially since historically the insurance industry largely started off as unregulated, moved on to being regulated on a voluntary basis and today it is heavily regulated by national laws and for most countries in Europe also by EU laws, Regulations and Directives. In view that through the years legislators felt that the customer deserved more rights and protection under the contract, for insurers this meant not only a change in culture but also a change in the way things have been traditionally done. Particularly at the underwriting stage, laws and regulations like the GDPR and the IDD to mention a few, have had a direct eff ect on insurance operations. Th is paper traces how insurers were aff ected by diff erent forms of legislation highlighting the need to respond, particularly through engaging specifi c type of personnel and investing in more sophisticated systems to compliment such a legislative and regulatory evolution.