Who we are

The German Association of Insured (BdV) together with Carsten Zielke, insurance analyst (Zielke Research), again analyzed the Solvency and Financial Conditions Reports (SFCR) with regard to the stability and safeness of German life insurers. Axel Kleinlein, spokesman of BdV, stresses in his conclusion: “We observe the veneration of solvency. But high solvency ratios alone are not sufficient for carelessness.” Higher ratios of capital requirements do mostly not rely on sustainable measures and are exaggerated with regard to other parameters. “Only the consideration of various parameters and their mutual interaction enable a precise analysis of the companies”, Zielke underlines. Positively BdV and Zielke assess that the solvency reports are more understandable than last year. “Many companies proved their willingness to learn and published significantly more transparent reports”, Kleinlein states.

The German Association of the Insured (BdV), an organization of consumer protection in the private insurance sector, published a serious statement about basic problems related to life insurances in Europe. "The opacity of life insurances is a threat to European consumers and the European economy" says Axel Kleinlein, spokesman of the board of BdV. With view to PEPP Christian Gülich, EU Policy Officer of BdV, adds: "The opacity in life insurances is too deeply rooted. We warn against relying on life insurances with regard to pension plans".

BdV and Zielke Research recently presented a common study on the current situation of German life insurers. The study is based on the so-called Solvency and Financial Conditions Reports (SFCR), which had to be published by the insurers on EU-level this year for the first time. The results are poor. “The bad quality and non-sufficient transparency of some of these reports are troubling”, Kleinlein, Spokesman of BdV, points out. Besides the issue of the financial resources of the companies, the study analyzes statements on benefit prospects, the management of surplus and the capital investments. “Our conclusion is that there is an urgent need for action for nearly all companies”, Kleinlein emphasizes. The results of this study including the analyzed key figures can be downloaded – for free – from the website of BdV.

We are strongly concerned that several changes of EIPOA's original proposals by the European Commission do not only lower the level of consumer protection, but will also hinder a convergent application by market participants. These changes are related to the product oversight and governance requirements and to insurance-based investment products.

FinTech, including InsurTech and Robo-Advisors, may be a factor for a more competitive and innovative European financial sector. But BdV underlines that consumers and investors must always be able to continue relying on high standards of consumer and investor protection, of data protection and privacy rights and of legal responsibility on the part of financial services providers.

BdV welcomes Guidelines on complex IBIPs but emphasizes the need for strict criteria. If too many exemptions from the suitability and appropriateness assessments are made, there will not be any changes in distribution practices of life insurances.