European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)

Factsheet

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) is the authority responsible for prudential supervision in the insurance and pensions sector in Europe. EIOPA is part of the European System of Financial Supervisors and is based in Frankfurt. DNB is a member of the Board of Supervisors, EIOPA’s principal decision-making body.

Published: 25 February 2019

Tasks and powers

EIOPA has the following main tasks:

promoting the quality and harmonisation of supervisory regulations, standards and practices
contributing to the consistent application of EU regulations, in particular by guaranteeing consistent supervisory practice by national EU supervisory authorities and preventing supervisory arbitrage
mediating in and settling disputes between EU supervisory authorities on the application of EU regulations

EIOPA has powers to propose binding technical standards. The European Commission can subsequently endorse these standards, possibly after amending them. After endorsement, the standards are immediately applicable and do not have to be implemented nationally.

Other European supervisory authorities

EIOPA only conducts prudential supervision in the insurance and pensions sector. The European supervisory authorities in other sectors are the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for the securities sector and the European Banking Authority (EBA) for the banking sector.