Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-27-Speech-2-251"
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"en.20050927.20.2-251"2
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".
The Commission has the greatest sympathy for the many thousands of policy-holders and pensioners who have suffered severe financial loss as a result of the serious problems encountered by the Equitable Life insurance company.
The Commission has no direct role in the supervision of individual insurance undertakings. That is the responsibility of each Member State and is, in practice, carried out by the supervisory authorities appointed for that purpose.
The United Kingdom Financial Services Authority, recognising certain weaknesses in the former regime and responding to criticisms in the Penrose report, has launched a major reform of the regulation of life insurance undertakings. In part this reflects the lessons learned from the Equitable Life affair.
As regards the payment of compensation where national supervision has failed, redress can only be sought before the national courts of the Member State in question. With respect to the Community regime for the insurance and pension sector, the Commission is currently working on the Solvency II project, the aim of which is to achieve over time a more harmonised risk-based system for the supervision and prudential regulation of all insurance undertakings across the European Union.
The Commission is also continuing its exploratory work with the Member States on insurance guarantee schemes that could deal with situations where an insurance undertaking fails and is unable to meet its commitments to policy-holders and beneficiaries. It should be noted, however, that Equitable Life did not enter into liquidation and continues to operate as an authorised insurance undertaking, albeit one that is closed to new business.
As far as the banking sector is concerned, the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive already obliges Member States to set up schemes which offer a minimum guarantee level of EUR 20 000 to depositors, although the threshold is higher in a number of Member States. The Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive is in the process of being reviewed in order to ensure that it is still in line with market developments.
Concerning the proposal for a directive on services in the internal market, the Commission would like to recall that financial services are excluded from the scope of application of the services proposal. Furthermore, it should be noted that the services proposal includes provisions strengthening consumer protection. In particular, Article 27 requires Member States to ensure that providers whose services present a direct and particular risk to the health and safety of the recipient or a third person, or to the financial security of the recipient, would be obliged to take out professional indemnity insurance."@en1
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