Starting with February 15, 2020, with the marking of the completion of an important stage in the application of Law no. 236/2018 transposing Directive (EU) 2016/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council on insurance distribution, there are 37,748 distributors of insurance and / or reinsurance products in the insurance market, which have become, after fulfilling the training requirements, specialists in insurance intermediation, in consulting for their clients. Thus, customers will be able to have higher quality services, customized to their needs.
"The Institute of Financial Studies has been involved with its members in building a European vocational training system, synchronized with the European financial certification network EFICERT, has contributed to the training of tens of thousands of people who can serve consumers as consultants, specialists in customer risk management. Distributors are the central point of the nervous system of insurance, their activity giving confidence to the system, providing financial education, serving the needs of financial security, welfare of customers ", says Călin RANGU, president of the Institute of Financial Studies.
In the ISF records are registered 33,374 insurance intermediaries individuals, 2,514 company employees, 1,533 managers of secondary intermediaries legal entities, 327 executive managers of main intermediaries, who meet the standards required by the European directive.
“The certification and continuous professional training of insurance product distributors is also a way to increase the degree of financial education, this being one of the main objectives of ISF. We need something more than just sellers, we need consultants, we need people who have the necessary skills to offer the consumer the right insurance products and who offer assistance including after-sales ", said Cătălin Câmpeanu, General Manager deputy to the ISF.
"The main objective of the distribution legislation is to protect consumers throughout the life of the product, from its design, testing and launch, through consulting and sales, to a correct settlement of any claims. The new legislation emphasizes ensuring the correct conduct of distributors, who must have proven skills, knowledge and skills, transparency, limiting conflicts of interest, information, proper customer service. Law no. 236/2018 expressly mentions that insurance distributors (insurers and intermediaries) must always act honestly, correctly and professionally, so as to best correspond to the interests of customers ", explained Călin RANGU.
About the Institute of Financial Studies
The Institute of Financial Studies, subordinated to the Financial Supervision Authority, is a center of excellence in the field of studying the markets and conducting financial education programs to ensure the skills, abilities and knowledge of financial institutions and ASF staff and to increase education. non-banking financial services and products. In the long term, ISF aims to align its activity with European requirements, move from knowledge accumulation to skills accumulation and assessment, provide training programs for the non-banking financial field adapted to new organizational processes, determined by legislative requirements, market dynamics and of the European framework, contributing to the maturation of the non-banking financial market in Romania, to the creation of its capacity to face the competition induced by globalization or the effects of the economic crises.
