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Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013 (Section 48(1)) (Insurance Requirements) Regulations 2022 (SI 126/2022)

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Published 14 March 2023

Overview

The Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013 (Section 48(1)) (Insurance
Requirements) Regulations 2022 (SI 126/2022) (the “2022 Regulations”) came into force
on 1 July 2022. The 2022 Regulations apply to ‘consumers’, which includes individuals as
well as small companies with a turnover of €3 million of less.

A notable change introduced by the 2022 Regulations was a ban on price walking for
home and motor insurance policies sold to consumers after 1 July 2022. The effect of the
ban is that insurance undertakings and insurance intermediaries can no longer charge
second or subsequent renewing customers a higher premium that they would have
charged for an equivalent ‘year one’ renewal customer. Discounts for new customers are
still permitted.

A summary of the other key aspects of the 2022 Regulations was to introduce the
following changes:

  • a requirement that insurance undertakings and insurance intermediaries carry out an
    annual review of motor and home insurance pricing policies.
  • a requirement for insurance undertaking and insurance intermediaries to allow consumers to cancel auto-renewal of non-life insurance policies free of charge.
  • regarding automatic renewal of non-life insurance policies, to provide reminders to a consumer with clear information and reminders in advance of auto-renewal.

The changes introduced by the 2022 Regulations meant that insurance undertakings and
insurance intermediaries had to review their pricing practices and any changes required
to their systems by July 2022 in order to ensure compliance with the 2022 Regulations.

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