Directive 2005/68/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (repealed)Dangos y teitl llawn

Section 1 Competent authorities and general rules

Article 15 Competent authorities and object of supervision

1. The financial supervision of a reinsurance undertaking, including that of the business it carries on either through branches or under the freedom to provide services, shall be the sole responsibility of the home Member State.

If the competent authorities of the host Member State have reason to consider that the activities of a reinsurance undertaking might affect its financial soundness, they shall inform the competent authorities of the reinsurance undertaking's home Member State. The latter authorities shall determine whether the reinsurance undertaking is complying with the prudential rules laid down in this Directive.

2. The financial supervision pursuant to paragraph 1 shall include verification, with respect to the reinsurance undertaking's entire business, of its state of solvency, of the establishment of technical provisions and of the assets covering them in accordance with the rules laid down or practices followed in the home Member State under provisions adopted at Community level.

3. The home Member State of the reinsurance undertaking shall not refuse a retrocession contract concluded by the reinsurance undertaking with a reinsurance undertaking authorised in accordance with this Directive or an insurance undertaking authorised in accordance with Directives 73/239/EEC or 2002/83/EC on grounds directly related to the financial soundness of that reinsurance undertaking or that insurance undertaking.

4. The competent authorities of the home Member State shall require every reinsurance undertaking to have sound administrative and accounting procedures and adequate internal control mechanisms.

Article 16 Supervision of branches established in another Member State

The Member State of the branch shall provide that, where a reinsurance undertaking authorised in another Member State carries on business through a branch, the competent authorities of the home Member State may, after having first informed the competent authorities of the Member State of the branch, carry out themselves or through the intermediary of persons they appoint for that purpose, on-the-spot verification of the information necessary to ensure the financial supervision of the undertaking. The authorities of the Member State of the branch may participate in that verification.

Article 17 Accounting, prudential and statistical information: supervisory powers

1. Each Member State shall require every reinsurance undertaking whose head office is situated in its territory to produce an annual account, covering all types of operation, of its financial situation and of its solvency.

2. Member States shall require reinsurance undertakings with head offices within their territories to render periodically the returns, together with statistical documents, which are necessary for the purposes of supervision. The competent authorities shall provide each other with any documents and information that are useful for the purposes of supervision.

3. Every Member State shall take all steps necessary to ensure that the competent authorities have the powers and means necessary for the supervision of the business of reinsurance undertakings with head offices within their territories, including business carried on outside those territories.

4. In particular, the competent authorities shall be enabled to:

(a) make detailed enquiries regarding a reinsurance undertaking's situation and the whole of its business, inter alia, by gathering information or requiring the submission of documents concerning its reinsurance and retrocession business, and by carrying out on-the-spot investigations at the reinsurance undertaking's premises;

(b) take any measures with regard to a reinsurance undertaking, its directors or managers or the persons who control it, that are appropriate and necessary to ensure that that reinsurance undertaking's business continues to comply with the laws, regulations and administrative provisions with which the reinsurance undertaking must comply in each Member State;

(c) ensure that those measures are carried out, if need be, by enforcement and where appropriate through judicial channels.

Member States may also make provision for the competent authorities to obtain any information regarding contracts which are held by intermediaries.

Article 18 Transfer of portfolio

Under the conditions laid down by national law, each Member State shall authorise reinsurance undertakings with head offices within its territory to transfer all or part of their portfolios of contracts, including those concluded either under the right of establishment or the freedom to provide services, to an accepting office established within the Community, if the competent authorities of the home Member State of the accepting office certify that, after taking the transfer into account, the latter possesses the necessary solvency margin referred to in Chapter 3.