1. Executive Summary

1.1 Overview

According to Article 9 (1)(a) of the Regulation establishing EIOPA , the Authority “shall take a leading role in promoting transparency, simplicity and fairness in the market for consumer financial products or services across the internal market, including by: … (b) collecting, analysing and reporting on consumer trends”.

In addition, under “Tasks and powers of the Authority” according to Article 8, the “Authority shall have the following tasks: … (h) to foster the protection of policyholders, pension scheme members and beneficiaries”.

Moreover, Article 35 of the same Regulation provides a general basis for the collection of information. At the request of EIOPA, NSAs “shall provide [EIOPA] with all necessary information to carry out the duties assigned to it by this Regulation, provided that they have legal access to the relevant information and that the request for information is necessary in relation to the nature of the duty in question".

To meet the above objectives, in order to develop a regular consumer trends report for the insurance sector, EIOPA has developed a methodology for producing the annual Consumer Trends Reports. This report has focused on the insurance sector...

Read full EIOPA Methodology Report.