Understanding Ireland’s Individual Accountability Framework Regime

Regulating individual accountability and consumer centric cultures in financial services has become an area of particular priority for Ireland’s financial services regulator, the Central Bank of Ireland (Central Bank) in recent years. This has culminated in the adoption of the Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework (IAF)) Act 2023, supporting regulations and guidance. Collectively these are referred to as the IAF Regime. The IAF Regime represents the single most significant, cross-sectoral regulatory enhancement in Ireland over the last decade. While some elements of the IAF Regime apply to all regulated financial service providers (RFSPs), insurance undertakings and third country branches of insurance undertakings are captured by all aspects of the IAF Regime. Incoming European Economic Area (EEA) branches are also in-scope for discrete elements of the IAF Regime, namely the conduct standards. In this piece we consider the drivers behind the need for the IAF Regime, its foundational pillars and Matheson’s observations on implementation.

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Doing insurance business in Liechtenstein

The Principality of Liechtenstein is a small country in the heart of Europe, located between Switzerland and Austria. Despite the small size, Liechtenstein is very competitive in the financial sector, including insurance companies and products. Due to its close economic ties with the surrounding countries – Liechtenstein is part of a customs and monetary union with Switzerland for 100 years, has concluded an agreement with Switzerland on direct insurance and insurance distribution and is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) since 1995 – Liechtenstein offers an outstanding location for insurance companies.

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