Overview
Strategic Risk quotes Guy Soussan in a December 17 article titled “Brexit Causing Contract Uncertainty.” The article discusses pre-Brexit cross-border insurance contracts sold between the UK and the EU that will still be in force after the UK’s departure from the EU in March 2019. Mr. Soussan highlights the urgency of the issue, explaining that “if passporting rights cease to apply following Brexit and no transitional arrangements are put in place, UK and EU-27 insurers will not be able to pursue insurance business on both sides of the Channel.”
Mr. Soussan goes on to caution that in some EU member states, UK insurers with pre-Brexit contracts may be treated as insurers whose authorization has been withdrawn or lapsed, explaining that the “situation falls outside the Solvency II framework and is addressed at a national level.” Even so, Mr. Soussan would not expect “such laws to prohibit a UK insurer from paying claims on a policy which had been lawfully underwritten” pre-Brexit as this “would be contrary to one of the key objectives of insurance: which is to protect policyholders.”
