Key principles

• The voluntary transfer of portfolios of insurance business under the supervision of the ACPR is a procedure that falls outside the scope of ordinary law and is distinct from a contractual portfolio transfer (covered by the Civil Code).

• Compliance with essential rules:
  • The transfer may not be prejudicial to the interests of the creditors, members, policyholders or beneficiaries of contracts.
  • The transferring undertaking must have an adequate solvency margin in light of the transfer.
• The transfer may be made by:
  • insurance institutions having their registered offices in France (insurance undertakings, mutual insurers and provident institutions) and potentially having branches in a country that is a party to the agreement on the European Economic Area;
  • French branches of insurance institutions having their registered offices in a country that is a party to the agreement on the European Economic Area;
  • French branches of foreign undertakings having their registered offices in a country that is not part of the European Economic Area.
• The transfer may be undertaken in favour of:
  • insurance institutions having their registered offices in France (insurance undertakings, mutual insurers and provident institutions) and potentially having branches in a country that is a party to the agreement on the European Economic Area;
  • insurance institutions established in a country that is a party to the agreement on the European Economic Area;
  • branches of foreign (non-EEA) undertakings established in a country that is a party to the agreement on the European Economic Area.

Procedure

• Given the constraints on reviewing applications and publishing decisions in the Official Journal, applications must be received by the ACPR no later than 31 August.

• Portfolio transfers by insurance institutions licensed in France:
  • Having checked that the application is complete, the ACPR notifies the transfer request to creditors by publishing a notice in the Official Journal, giving creditors two months to submit their observations.
  • The ACPR’s decision to approve the transfer is published in the Official Journal once the two-month period has elapsed. Once published, the decision is enforceable against third parties.
  • Policyholders have the option of terminating their contracts within a month of the date on which the decision to approve the transfer is published, except in cases of compulsory membership under industry agreements.
• Portfolio transfers by insurance institutions licensed in a country that is a party to the agreement on the European Economic Area to a transferee institution licensed in France:

  • Insurance organisms having their registered offices in a country that is a party to the EEA agreement may be authorised by their supervisory authority to transfer some or all of their portfolio of contracts taken out in France to an undertaking licensed in France (a French institution or a branch of an undertaking licensed in a country that is not a party to the EEA agreement).

  • The ACPR notifies the transfer request to creditors by publishing a notice in the French Gazette, giving creditors two months to submit their observations :

1.  If the portfolio to be transferred includes contracts which have been subscribed in France, the ACPR  brings the transfer to the creditors’ attention by an opinion published in the French Gazette which provide them with a period of two months to submit their observations. At the expiration of the time limit, if the ACPR does not oppose the transfer, it communicates its agreement to the supervisory authority of the distributing entity. The date of approval of the transfer by that supervisory authority is published in the form of a legal opinion in the French Gazette. The publication of this opinion makes effective the transfer against third parties. Policyholders may terminate their contract within one month following the publication of the decision of the approved operation.
2.  If the portfolio to be transferred doesn’t include contracts which have been subscribed in France , the ACPR is not compelled to follow the process of the publication in the French Gazette.  

Reference texts :

Application content

Two copies of the application should be submitted to:

Direction des Autorisations (DA)
66-2789 Service des Organismes d'Assurance

4, place de Budapest

CS 92 459
75436 Paris Cedex 09