Portfolio transfers

Factsheet

Read aloud

If an insurer wishes to transfer its portfolio or part of it to another insurer, it needs our prior consent. The same applies to a proposed merger or demerger resulting in a portfolio transfer. In the case of non-life insurance, the insurer may also choose to request the consent of each individual policyholder. The acquiring insurer must have obtained the required licences for the branches concerned.

Published: 07 October 2019

Conditions for consent

The law explicitly states that we must not give consent if the acquiring insurer does not or will not comply with the solvency requirements.

In assessing the request for consent, we take into account both the interests of the policyholders of the transferring insurer and the interests of the policyholders of the acquiring insurer. Any assessment will take into account the solvency requirements at the time of transfer, the future expectations and possible changes to the risk profile resulting from the combination of both portfolios. In certain cases, the advice or consent of a regulatory body in another Member State is required. For example, where the acquiring insurer is established in another Member State. The following is an overview of the various procedures in the case of a life insurer and benefit-in-kind insurer and a non-life insurer.

Procedure for life insurance and benefit-in-kind funeral insurance portfolio transfers

Once we have determined that the data at the time of the request for consent of the intended transfer of the portfolio are sufficient to prepare a decision, we will instruct the insurer to publish its intention to transfer the portfolio. It is published in the Government Gazette and ‘in other ways to be determined by DNB’. In practice, these ‘other ways’ usually comprise publication in a number of daily and/or professional journals, or individual notification to policyholders. These publications should be made on the same day. Policyholders can lodge an objection within a period set by us, usually 30 days after the date of publication. We will consent to the transfer unless one quarter or more of the policyholders has objected to the proposed transfer within the specified period, and provided there are no other objections to the transfer. The insurer then publishes our consent in the Government Gazette and ‘in other ways to be determined by DNB’.

Procedure for non-life insurance portfolio transfers

Once we have given our consent to the transfer of a non-life insurance portfolio, the insurer publishes our decision in the Government Gazette and ‘in any other manner to be determined by DNB’ (e.g. publication in a number of daily and/or professional journals or individual notification to policyholders). The policyholders concerned may then terminate the insurance in writing for a period of three months by the end of that period, and the premiums they paid in advance will be reimbursed to them.

Request for consent

You can submit a request for consent through the Digital Supervision Portal (DLT) . Via the Downloads below you can consult the explanatory notes to the portfolio transfer process. The explanatory notes include example texts for publication and a list of the documents you must include in your request for consent. This list is also provided in the DLT.

We are currently developing a specific form for requests for consent for a portfolio transfer in the event of a merger or demerger of insurers. Until then, you can use the existing form for portfolio transfer. Alternatively, you can use the form to apply for a merger or demerger, which you can download from the links below. You can then submit this form to your account supervisor.

Relevant sections of the law

The relevant sections of the law on portfolio transfers can be found in Part 3.5.1A of the Wft. A description of the documents to be submitted with requests for consent can be found in Section 2 of the Decree on Special Prudential Measures, Investor Compensation Scheme and Deposit Guarantee Scheme (Besluit Bijzondere prudentiële maatregelen, beleggerscompensatie en depositogarantie Wft).

Base law

Hoofdstuk 3.5.1a Wft -Portefeuilleoverdracht (Refers to an external site)

Art. 3:115 Wft (Refers to an external site)

Art. 2 BBPMBDWFT (Refers to an external site)

Discover related articles

Factsheet

Market access

Share:

Share on LinkedIn

Share on X

Share on Facebook

Share via Email

Necessary cookies

To ensure the proper operation of the website, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) uses functional cookies and analytics cookies, and has taken measures to ensure that these cookies have little or no impact on the privacy of website users.

Optional cookies

Some pages include embedded content from external websites. These websites may use proprietary (tracking) cookies. This allows third parties to track visitor statistics, show personalised content and display targeted ads, for example.

You can make your choice about allowing these optional cookies both when you first visit the website and when you navigate to a page with embedded content.