Single licence for insurers

Factsheet

An insurer must comply with all sorts of requirements laid down in the Financial Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht / Wft) when applying for an authorisation and in carrying on its business. These requirements are intended to promote the solidity of the insurer and therefore also to protect interested parties from the risk of losses due to inadequate solvency or liquidity. De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) supervises insurers' compliance with the statutory requirements.

Published: 04 December 2023

The Wft and the related secondary legislation impose requirements on insurers with respect to the following issues (this is not an exhaustive list):

the trustworthiness of the persons who determine policy
the expertise of the persons who determine policy
sound operations
controlled operations
outsourcing
legal form
control structure
minimum regulatory own funds
adequate solvency
technical provisions

The requirements have been elaborated in secondary legislation and relate to all sorts of operational, technical and financial aspects of the business. The provisions in the secondary legislation take account of the various risks involved, as well as differences in the nature, size and complexity of insurers. For health insurers implementing the Health Insurance Act (Zorgverzekeringswet) specific rules apply for calculating the solvency requirement. The requirements as elaborated largely arise from the international harmonisation of supervisory requirements, often through the implementation of EU directives in Dutch primary and secondary legislation.