By Ivass penalties doubled to EUR 14 million in 2024

A brisk 2024 for the sanctioning activity of Ivass, the Italian authority that oversees the insurance sector, which took 181 measures last year (130 in 2023), of which 73 concluded with fines (56 in the previous year), 80 non-pecuniary (50 in 2023) and 28 with dismissals (24 in the previous 12 months). The fines imposed totalled EUR 14.1 million (double the EUR 7 million of the previous year). The figures come from the 'Report on the activities carried out by the institute in the year 2024' presented in Rome on 19 June by Ivass President Luigi Federico Signorini, who on the occasion thanked the two institute directors Riccardo Cesari and Alberto Corinti, who had reached the end of their second mandate (and had been in office for 12 years), for their work. Also leaving was Secretary General Stefano De Polis, who had been in service for 40 years, first at the Bank of Italy and since 2017 at Ivass, and was replaced by Ida Mercanti.

"In 2024, complex sanction proceedings were concluded with the issuance of orders imposing substantial fines. In the quantification of the sanction, particular attention was paid to the valorisation of the remedial activities undertaken by those responsible for the violations to remove the prejudicial effects, in order to ensure the deterrent function of the sanction in compliance with the principles of proportionality and adequacy - explains Ivass -. Monetary sanctions were imposed at the conclusion of proceedings against a company placed in compulsory administrative liquidation (Eurovita Spa, liquidated with Ministerial Decree of 27 October 2023) and its company officers for serious shortcomings in the governance, management and control of financial risks as well as in anti-money laundering matters for shortcomings in customer profiling and due diligence, the retention of documents, data and information for due diligence purposes, and inadequate procedures on the subject of suspicious transactions. For the first time, a case against a company for deficiencies in the product governance and control process (Pog - Product Oversight and Governance) was concluded with the imposition of a sanction. This is the first financial sanction against a company in this matter. Eight sanctioning measures were appealed before the courts (5.2 per cent of the sanctioning measures issued), of which five non-pecuniary measures against intermediaries, two measures against corporate officers on anti-money laundering and one measure against a company on transparency. As far as distribution is concerned, of the 81 sanctions imposed, 80 concerned intermediaries and one, amounting to EUR 516,000, concerned violations in the area of governance and control of insurance products (Pog) ascertained against a company.

As for the recipients of sanctions, in addition to Eurovita, there are 28 other companies (of which 19 are Italian, accounting for 22.4% of the total), 10 company representatives and 80 brokers. Among the latter are mainly members of the letter A of the Single Register of Intermediaries (agents with 31 measures), followed by collaborators (letter E) with 29 sanctions and brokers with 20 measures. No sanctions were imposed on financial intermediaries (letter D). The conduct that gave rise to measures to disbar intermediaries mainly related to the failure to remit to the companies or brokers of reference sums collected by way of premiums, often accompanied by omitted records of receipts, the breach of obligations to segregate assets resulting from the failure to set up or incorrectly manage the segregated current account, or the misappropriation of insurance premiums collected in cash from policyholders. The falsification or forging of contractual documentation with the irregular underwriting of policies, the failure to underwrite insurance contracts, and the communication of untrue circumstances to policyholders, with the issue of false attestations in contract offers, were also frequent. Censure measures were imposed in the less serious cases of failure to remit premiums collected from policyholders and for violations in the performance of distribution activities of the obligations of fairness, honesty, professionalism, correctness and transparency with which distributors of insurance products must operate in the best interests of policyholders, with failure at times to comply with the provisions on the adequacy of contracts offered and the acquisition and retention of pre-contractual documentation. In two cases, infringing conduct was ascertained and sanctioned with censure for failure to comply with the requirements

Distributors' Pog.