In a letter to the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Valdis Dombrovskis, on Thursday 28 September, MEP Alfred Sant (S&D, Malta) called on the European Commission to delay by one year the application of the directive on insurance distribution (DID), which the member states have until 23 February 2018 to transpose.
This call comes following the Commission's adoption last week of two delegated acts on the supervision and governance of insurance products and on the application of rules of conduct by sellers of these, which are supposed to enter into force at the same time as the DID directive (see EUROPE 11867).
Echoing the position of the Maltese Insurance Association, Sant stresses the difficulties the insurance sector in Malta, and other member states as well, will have in applying new rules at such short notice.
In June, the MEP already told Dombrovskis that the Commission's timetable to finalise the delegated acts would not leave insurers enough time to prepare properly to apply them, and issued his first call for the deadline to be extended. However, the Commissioner refused, arguing that this would send out the “wrong signal” to the industry.
The Maltese MEP is nonetheless confident that Dombrovskis will this time recognise the importance of taking the legitimate interests of Maltese insurance providers into account. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)