Insurers in secret sex-directive discussions

By Peter Chapman

Date: 10/06/04

EUROPEAN insurers are in secret talks to thrash out an industry-wide code of conduct to counter the risk of an EU law banning sex discrimination in policies.

European Voice has learned that the Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA), the group that represents the industry, has asked its members if they would back self-regulation as a way to ward-off the threat of tough legislation.

Letters were fired-off this week to the group's national association members - and industry chiefs are expected to discuss the idea at their annual assembly in two weeks' time.

The plan emerged after a majority of EU ministers last week opposed proposals tabled by ex-employment and social affairs commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou.

Only eight countries, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, the Czech Republic and Estonia supported the section of the law that would stop insurers and pension funds using gender-specific data when they calculate payouts and premiums.

But despite the opposition, industry bosses fear a compromise deal could still impose some onerous restrictions on firms' premium and payout decisions.

Self-regulation, if effectively enforced, could convince member states to leave the industry alone, insurers believe.

"It [the plan for self-regulation] came out from the CEA on Tuesday [8 July] for consultation," confirmed one insurance lobbyist.

"It has not been approved yet, but there is a good chance that it will be agreed because there has to be some compromise. The industry is going to have to give something," he added.

Under this, insurance companies would abide by a code agreed by the CEA, pledging to treat men and women differently in policies only in very specific cases. These differences must be justified by objective, up-to-date, relevant data proving the different risk levels of men and women.

Life insurers argue that women live longer than men, so they cannot expect to be able to buy annuities - the products which transform a pensioners' savings into a monthly payment - on the same terms.

Under a self-regulation scenario, firms would be able to make higher monthly payments to male annuity holders, but they would be expected to back-up the differences with recent actuarial evidence.

The same would be true for car insurance, where young men are often charged more than young women for the same cover, because insurers reckon they are more likely to have a serious crash.

The UK-based Equal Opportunities Commission, normally a staunch critic of sex discrimination, said it supported a limited carve-out for insurers after it examined evidence which showed that women would not gain from gender equality in the annuities market.

Its chief executive Caroline Slocock said companies' claims justifying discrimination would need to be checked by an "appropriate regulatory body". But some industry officials admit they are nervous about publicizing the plan because they expect to face a backlash from critics who do not trust self-regulation.

Aides to Diamantopoulou's replacement Stavros Dimas said they are "ready to compromise" after the Council of Ministers setback - but they insisted that self-regulation would be too weak.

"It would not make sense because anyone can deviate from self-regulation," said a member of the Greek's cabinet.

Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA), the group that represents the European insurance industry, has asked its members if they would support self-regulation as a way to fend off the threat of tough European Union legislation banning sex discrimination in insurance policies.

http://www.cea.assur.org/ http://www.cea.assur.org/

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