Exemption from the authorisation requirement

Specific small insurers may be exempted from our supervision and therefore do not need authorisation to provide their insurance services. This only applies to small funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurers and small non-life insurers. The latter can only apply for exemption if they do not provide insurance services in any of the following segments.

• Motor vehicle liability
• Road transport liability
• Aircraft liability
• Liability for ships
• General liability
• Credit risks
• Surertship

Conditions for exemption

A non-life insurer or a funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurer may be exempted from the authorisation requirement if it at least meets all of the following requirements.

• Gross annual premium income does not exceed EUR 2,200,000.
• Technical provisions do not exceed EUR 10,700,000.
• If the insurer forms part of a group, the group's total technical provisions may not exceed EUR 26,600,000 and no other group companies fall under the scope of the Solvency II regime.
• Reinsurance activities do not exceed EUR 600,000 in gross premium income or EUR 2,700,000 in technical provisions, or constitute more than 10% of gross premium income or technical provisions.
• The company may not carry out any other activities, except trading activities arising from its non-life or funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurance business and activities in the context of life or non-life reinsurance.

The following additional conditions apply to non-life insurers:

• they may not effect insurance providing cover in excess of EUR 14,000 per beneficiary per potential claim;
• they may not provide war insurance cover.

The following additional condition applies to funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurers:

• they may not effect insurance providing cover in excess of EUR 14,000 per death.

The exemption ceases to apply if the insurer exceeds any of the limits stated in the first four requirements in three consecutive years. Conversely, insurers who lose their exempt status must first meet these conditions for three consecutive years before they can apply for exemption again. Non-life and funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurers must notify us of any changes that could affect their exempt status.

Scope of the exemption

Non-life and funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurers that meet the applicable conditions are exempt from the prohibition to provide insurance services without holding authorisation issued by DNB. Exempted insurers remain subject to the rule that their legal form must be a public limited company, mutual insurance association or European company. Furthermore, their exemption does not include:

• the prohibition to invite repayable funds;
• the prohibition to act as a default or guarantee fund;
• the prohibition to use the word "bank"

Finally, exemption from DNB's supervision does not automatically imply exemption from supervision by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). If your insurance company wishes to provide consultancy or intermediation services, it needs authorisation from the AFM, unless it is exempt from the authorisation requirement. Please refer to the AFM's website for more information.