Insurance Brokers Licence: Renewal of license and appointment of new director including timeframes

In Cyprus, applying for a new insurance brokers license is a very straight forward process which can be done by your experienced service providers.  CYAUSE Audit Services has worked in multiple insurance brokers applications and know exactly what is needed from the Insurance Regulator’s side.

As mentioned above, a service provider needs to be experienced in this type of service in order to be able to guide the client in the correct path and avoid any delays or misunderstandings that would cause an issue of providing wrong evidence where the Insurance Regulator will not approve.

We have received multiple Insurance brokers enquiries over the years and the issue with the first appointed service providers has been outstanded in these cases. What we mean by that is when the clients from these types of enquiries had received bad experience from services that were not as promised initially which caused delays and miscommunication. You should always be careful which service provider you choose for the issuance of Insurance licence by receiving proper form of response as an answer to your questions about the type of insurance you need to follow and the documents that are needed to be gathered before submitting it to the Insurance Regulator.

Another important point that most of the new insurance brokers clients need to know and unfortunately are not being informed properly by their service providers is the annual submissions and the updates received from the Insurance Regulator. This step is mostly being ignored or not known by the clients which causes fines for late submissions or not keeping up with the new updates from the Laws and Regulations. All insurance companies need to submit their annual financial statements to the Insurance Regulator which should reflect the actual services they provide to their clients.

Following the above point, when a client is not up to date with the new laws and regulations that are issued in the website of the Register of Insurance/Reinsurance Intermediaries and also is not providing the appropriate services that have been registered to do initially, this can cause fines and the loss of their insurance licence. You should be aware during the initial process of preparing the applications of the issuance of the insurance licence to inform the service provider and thereon the Insurance Regulator about the type of insurance you should provide to your clients so that you can avoid any issues in the future.

Licence renewal

All the insurance companies (agents and brokers) who are licensed by the Cyprus Registrar of Insurers need to renew their licences every 3 years. Bare in mind that two months before the renewal of the licence, each insurance company gets notified by the Insurance Regulator in order to start gathering all the necessary documents for the Insurance Regulator review. Once the documents are reviewed and the fees for the renewal are paid, the Insurance Regulator issues the renewed licence.

Timeframes

• Gathering of the information: usually takes 1 to 2 months depending on how efficient the applicant is

• Application Examination: Usually takes 1 month based on the work overload from the Insurance Regulator side.

• Issuance of the renewed licence: Less than a week once the fees are paid.

Gathering of documents

According to the Insurance Regulator, gathering of the documentation for the licence renewal needs to be efficient and quick in order to avoid the deadline date which can cause a fixed penalty fee on the renewal. The documents for the Insurance Brokers that need to be gathered are very straight forward. The applicants need to sign and fill the EAD 9 form with the appropriate information such as name, address, appointed Director, type of insurance etc.

Along with the EAD 9 form (which can be found in the website of the Registrar of Insurers), the below documents are needed in the case where the applicant is an Insurance Broker.

1. A declaration statement that all the requirements of continuous professional training and development have been met.

2. A certificate of appropriate practical training in case any data related to the distribution of insurance/reinsurance products have changed.

3. A clean criminal record certificate from the police for the directors and managers of the company.

4. A certificate of non-bankruptcy from an Official receiver for the directors and managers of the company.

5. A certificate of professional liability insurance in the name of the company.

6. A copy of the business distribution list of the insurance/reinsurance companies with which the intermediary cooperated.

7. A confirmation of the financial capacity with a minimum of (€19,510) – bank statement.

Appointment of New Director

As mentioned previously, an Insurance Brokers company in order to be able to provide services to their clients, they need to have one or more appointed Directors who have the appropriate experience in this sector and most importantly they need to have the appropriate qualification from high institutions which are recognised under the Cyprus Insurance Institute.

A common mistake/issue that a significant amount of Cyprus Insurance companies do when they are incorporating a new company and applying for an insurance licence is that they usually choose their selves or a trustworthy individual to be appointed as the director of the company. In most cases, that we have faced before, these individuals do not have the appropriate qualifications even though they have worked in the insurance sector as employees in the past.

Key note: Always when applying for a new director, you should be aware that the chosen individual has the appropriate qualifications and experience to provide such services under the Insurance Brokers company in Cyprus.

Timeframes

• Gathering of the information: usually takes 1 to 2 months depending on how efficient the applicant is

• Application Examination: Usually takes less than 1 month based on the work overload from the Insurance Regulator side.

• Appointment of the new Director: Less than a week once the fees are paid.

The fees for the appointment of the new director are 70 euros.

Gathering of Documents

Applying for the appointment of a new director under an insurance company, the below documents that need to be gathered are very straight forward. The applicants need to sign and fill the EAD 5 form with the appropriate information such as name, address, name of insurance company etc.

Along with the EAD 5 form (which can be found in the website of the Registrar of Insurers), the below documents are needed.

1. A clean criminal record certificate from the police.

2. A certificate of non-bankruptcy from an Official receiver.

3. A certificate of Basic Insurance training from the Cyprus Insurance Institute showing the qualification of the applicant.

4. A university degree (in case the application concerns an Insurance Brokers company)

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