The Danish parliament has passed the Insurance Business Act, which will enable the country’s authorities to regulate the financial sector as several different industries rather than one homogeneous sector.

Forsikring & Pension said that the insurance and pension industry “rejoices” over the new law, as regulation will be much more adapted to the industry.

“For more than five years, we have worked for legislation that applies separately to the insurance and pension area,” said Forsikring & Pension CEO, Kent Damsgaard. “So this is a milestone.”

The association noted that, until now, the insurance and pension industry has been regulated based on the general legislation for the entire financial sector.

“Our companies are not banks,” Damsgaard continued. “But we have been regulated according to the same set of laws, which has given us a lot of problems and challenges.

“Even small pension companies have to spend a lot of resources on documentation requirements that have absolutely no relevance for them.”

He added that several elements of the ‘fit and proper’ rules have been made with a focus on banks, and that it made “no sense” that the insurance and pension industry had to abide by the same rules.

“We look forward to the new law, which targets the insurance and pension industry, coming into force,” Damsgaard commented.

“The law is clearer and simpler than the Financial Business Act, and we are convinced that the law will benefit the insurance and pension customers, the companies and the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, which oversees our industry.”

Forsiking & Pension added that the new law was a clear recognition that the underlying regulations for the insurance and pension industry was different from banking regulations.

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