The Bermuda Monetary Authority, Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission and the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, Germany’s financial supervisory authority, have become the first three regulators to sign the International Association of Insurance Supervisors’ (IAIS) Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU) aimed at strengthening international cooperation efforts between regulators.
According to IAIS, the MMoU will assist insurance supervisors improve the effectiveness of cross-border supervision of insurance companies and contribute to the global effort to ensure that systemically important financial institutions are appropriately regulated.
“Strong and effective cooperation and information exchange are key to preserving financial stability,” stressed Richard Walker, chairman of the MMoU’s Interim Signatories Working Group.
“The MMoU has a crucial part to play in this,” he added.
Walker explained that each authority applying to be a MMoU signatory undergoes a rigorous and independent validation process to ascertain whether the minimum standards of the MMoU are satisfied.
“Signatories can therefore take comfort that the information they exchange is properly protected,” said Walker.
The IAIS reports that applications from 17 supervisory authorities to become MMoU signatories are currently being validated. The IAIS represents insurance regulators and supervisors of some 190 jurisdictions in nearly 140 countries.
