European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)

European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority was established by the Regulation (EU) No 1094/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November and is part of the European System of Financial Supervision.

European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority was established on 1 January 2011 with seat in Frankfurt, Germany, as a legal successor to the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) and has taken over all existing and ongoing tasks and responsibilities from the CEIOPS.

Main tasks of the EIOPA:

  • provide opinions to the Union institutions and develop guidelines, recommendations, and draft regulatory and implementing technical standards,
  • contribute to the consistent application of legally binding Union acts, in particular by contributing to a common supervisory culture, ensuring consistent, efficient and effective application of the Union acts, preventing regulatory arbitrage, mediating and settling disagreements between competent authorities and taking actions, inter alia, in emergency situations
  • improve the cooperation of supervisory authorities, delegation of tasks, functioning of colleges of supervisors and conduct peer review analyses,
  • cooperate with the ESRB, analyze the developments in its field,
  • foster the protection of policyholders, pension scheme members and beneficiaries, improve transparency and disclosure of information.

The Board of Supervisors takes decisions necessary to ensure the performance of the tasks entrusted to EIOPA. The Board of Supervisors consists of the following members with voting rights: the head of the national public authority competent for the supervision of financial institutions in each Member State. Members without voting rights are: chair of the EIOPA, representatives of the European Commission, ECB, ESRB, EBA and ESMA.

The chair of the EIOPA is Gabriel Bernardino (Portugal), the Executive Director is Mr Carlos Montalvo (Spain). Members of the Management Board are Peter Braumüller (Austria), Matthew Elderfield (Ireland), Damian Jaworski (Poland), Flavia Mazzarella (Italy), Jan Parner (Denmark) and Hector Sants (United Kingdom).

Website of the EIOPA: www.eiopa.europa.eu

Update: May 25, 2011