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Conference of European Bancassurers

CEB

Promote measures to enhance the value for consumers, to reduce the protection gap, and to foster the sustainability in the bancassurance model, Promote the development of bancassurance and the exchange and implementation of best practices, To express the position of bancassurers to all organizations or institutions at European and international level, To establish and maintain ongoing relations with professional bodies at European and international level, To examine all draft legislative or regulatory texts relating to insurance in order to propose all the desirable improvements, In general, to undertake any action likely to promote the achievement of the above goals.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Savings and Investments Union

7 Mar 2025

The Conference of European Bancassurers welcomes the European Commission's initiative to foster the Savings and Investments Union (SIU). In the opinion of bancassurers, as first message, we consider that is essential to consider life insurance and pension products as key long-term instruments. Bancassurance is the main provider of the many long-term insurance savings and pension products that contribute to the bolstering of European investment capacities and to keeping the standard of living of an ageing population. The second message we would like to highlight as bancassurers is that if all factors influencing investment decisions should be taken into account, such as citizens drivers to invest and the performance of other investment markets (in terms of products, or regions) that compete in the financial industry. Additionally, in some Member States, there are restrictions to invest, incentives to participate in the markets are very limited, and investment regulation presents instability. Therefore, it is important to establish a European regulatory framework with stability in the incentives (by way of reducing taxation and or otherwise) that must be maintained in the long term. Introducing fiscal incentives is essential to encourage people to save. Life insurance and pension products have unique characteristics that allow them to address two challenges simultaneously: channeling investment, on the one hand, and maintaining the standard of living during retirement. To allow long-term stability, it is important that the decumulation phase is undertaken gradually limiting lump sum alternatives if not reinvested in other long-term products. With the objective of increasing citizens awareness of the future pension, transparent information should be provided about their future pension entitlements, such as through pension dashboards or tracking systems. This would enable many to make informed decisions regarding their pensions. The implementation of automatic enrolment schemes for employees should be encouraged at EU level, when it is relevant for national pension systems. Research shows that people are more likely to join pension savings programs through auto-enrolment, provided they have the option to opt out if they wish. National pension systems vary significantly, but addressing the issue on those Member States with an underdeveloped Pillar II would significantly increase the retail participation in capital markets through long-term products. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach is not feasible for addressing these challenges. However, through life insurance schemes, integration and convergence could be much more feasible. The current diversity of products and distributors must be maintained, facilitating those distributors who are in a better position to bring products to citizens, such the bancassurance. The experience with the Pan-European Pension Product (PEPP) has demonstrated that EU products are challenging to implement in practice. Given the variety of products available on the market, there is no need to introduce a new EU saving and investment product. As some national initiatives have been highlighted, the European Commission could consider sharing best practices among Member States or evaluating the feasibility of a label for existing national products that are already successful with retail consumers. For these reasons, the creation of a European label for insurance and pension products would be the most efficient way to foster retail subscription. This label should recognize the tax attractiveness (most favored tax regime clause), the long-term character of the product, the protection of the beneficiary through a guarantee scheme, the autoenrollment principle and the portability of the contract at European level. A number of popular existing pension and life insurance products could be leveraged to fulfil the label conditionality and quickly gather very significant amounts of subscriptions.
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