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Directive 2002/92/EC
Insurance Mediation Directive
Article 4

Article 4 — Professional requirements

  1. Insurance and reinsurance intermediaries shall possess appropriate knowledge and ability, as determined by the home Member State of the intermediary.

    Home Member States may adjust the required conditions with regard to knowledge and ability in line with the activity of insurance or reinsurance mediation and the products distributed, particularly if the principal professional activity of the intermediary is other than insurance mediation. In such cases, that intermediary may pursue an activity of insurance mediation only if an insurance intermediary fulfilling the conditions of this Article or an insurance undertaking assumes full responsibility for his actions.

    Member States may provide that for the cases referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 3(1), the insurance undertaking shall verify that the knowledge and ability of the intermediaries are in conformity with the obligations set out in the first subparagraph of this paragraph and, if need be, shall provide such intermediaries with training which corresponds to the requirements concerning the products sold by the intermediaries.

    Member States need not apply the requirement referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph to all the natural persons working in an undertaking who pursue the activity of insurance or reinsurance mediation. Member States shall ensure that a reasonable proportion of the persons within the management structure of such undertakings who are responsible for mediation in respect of insurance products and all other persons directly involved in insurance or reinsurance mediation demonstrate the knowledge and ability necessary for the performance of their duties.

  2. Insurance and reinsurance intermediaries shall be of good repute. As a minimum, they shall have a clean police record or any other national equivalent in relation to serious criminal offences linked to crimes against property or other crimes related to financial activities and they should not have previously been declared bankrupt, unless they have been rehabilitated in accordance with national law.

    Member States may, in accordance with the provisions of the second subparagraph of Article 3(1), allow the insurance undertaking to check the good repute of insurance intermediaries.

    Member States need not apply the requirement referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph to all the natural persons who work in an undertaking and who pursue the activity of insurance and reinsurance mediation. Member States shall ensure that the management structure of such undertakings and any staff directly involved in insurance or reinsurance mediation fulfil that requirement.

  3. Insurance and reinsurance intermediaries shall hold professional indemnity insurance covering the whole territory of the Community or some other comparable guarantee against liability arising from professional negligence, for at least EUR 1000000 applying to each claim and in aggregate EUR 1500000 per year for all claims, unless such insurance or comparable guarantee is already provided by an insurance undertaking, reinsurance undertaking or other undertaking on whose behalf the insurance or reinsurance intermediary is acting or for which the insurance or reinsurance intermediary is empowered to act or such undertaking has taken on full responsibility for the intermediary's actions.
  4. Member States shall take all necessary measures to protect customers against the inability of the insurance intermediary to transfer the premium to the insurance undertaking or to transfer the amount of claim or return premium to the insured.

    Such measures shall take any one or more of the following forms:

    1. provisions laid down by law or contract whereby monies paid by the customer to the intermediary are treated as having been paid to the undertaking, whereas monies paid by the undertaking to the intermediary are not treated as having been paid to the customer until the customer actually receives them;
    2. a requirement for insurance intermediaries to have financial capacity amounting, on a permanent basis, to 4 % of the sum of annual premiums received, subject to a minimum of EUR 15000;
    3. a requirement that customers' monies shall be transferred via strictly segregated client accounts and that these accounts shall not be used to reimburse other creditors in the event of bankruptcy;
    4. a requirement that a guarantee fund be set up.
  5. Pursuit of the activities of insurance and reinsurance mediation shall require that the professional requirements set out in this Article be fulfilled on permanent basis.
  6. Member States may reinforce the requirements set out in this Article or add other requirements for insurance and reinsurance intermediaries registered within their jurisdiction.
  7. The amounts referred to in paragraphs 3 and 4 shall be reviewed regularly in order to take account of changes in the European Index of Consumer Prices as published by Eurostat. The first review shall take place five years after the entry into force of this Directive and the successive reviews every five years after the previous review date.

    The amounts shall be adapted automatically by increasing the base amount in euro by the percentage change in that Index over the period between the entry into force of this Directive and the first review date or between the last review date and the new review date and rounded up to the nearest euro.