Legal basis for the recovery and resolution of insurance companies

Since 2024, both the Insurance Supervision Act (ISA) and the Insurance Supervision Ordinance (ISO) have contained specific requirements and procedural provisions for recovery and resolution planning for the insurance sector.

The insurance sector fulfils important tasks in risk distribution and thus makes a decisive contribution to the functioning of the real economy and financial markets. An uncoordinated failure – particularly of large institutions – would also have an impact on the financial system and the real economy. Accordingly, initiatives have recently been launched at international and national level to further improve the resilience and crisis planning of these institutions and the relevant insolvency authorities.

The provisions of the Insurance Supervision Act ( ISA ) on protective measures (Art. 51), measures in the event of insolvency risk and liquidation (Art. 51 ff. ISA) as well as the procedural provisions (Art. 54 d ff. ISA) define SFMA’s powers as the competent insolvency authority for insurance companies.

Article 22 a ISA in conjunction with the implementing provisions of the ISO (98 b ff.) defines the powers and conditions under which SFMA must require economically significant insurance firms to produce a recovery plan.