Order of 4 April 2023 (ECOT2304075A) improving the transparency and readability of the costs of retirement savings plans and life insurances has been published on Légifrance.
Article 1 amends the Insurance Code’s Article A. 522-1 with some additions and revisions aiming to ensure a better understanding of the different types of funds, their risks, and their corresponding units of account, which are vital components in the insurance sector. The amendmends entail the inclusion of a new Paragraph after the seventh Paragraph which states that the summary risk indicator or an indicator of risk calculated similarly, should be incorporated in reference to Article 3 of Commission Delegated EU Regulation 2017/653. Additionally, new paragraphs are inserted after the eleventh paragraph. These paragraphs define the categories that units of account are classified under, according to the assets that represent the unit of account. There are eight categories in total, namely equity funds, bond funds, mixed funds, real estate funds, hedge funds, private equity funds, money market funds, and other funds. MMFs refer to units of account whose representative assets are collective investment undertakings specified in Article 1 of EU Regulation 2017/1131. Furthermore, the table in the Appendix of Article A. 522-1 is replaced by Appendix 1 to this present Order.
Article 2 amends the Order of 7 August 2019, inserting a new Paragraph after 7°, which stipulates that a summary risk indicator, as mentioned in Article 3 of Commission Delegated EU Regulation 2017/653, or a risk indicator calculated using a method similar to that provided for in the aforementioned regulation, must be considered in the classification of assets. Additionally, the amendment includes a new table annexed to Article 2, which classifies assets into eight categories, namely „Equity funds,“ „Bond funds,“ „Mixed funds,“ „Real estate funds,“ „Hedge funds,“ „Private equity funds,“ „Money market funds,“ and „Other.“ The categories have been defined based on the glossary of the Guideline of the European Central Bank on monetary and financial statistics (ECB/2014/15). This new table replaces the previous one that appeared in the Appendix to the Order of 7 August 2019.
Article 3 defines the entering into force of Order of 4 April 2023, which shall be effective as of 1 July 2023, with the exception of the clauses pertaining to the yearly information referenced in Article L. 132-22 of the Insurance Code and the annual update specified in Article L. 224-7 of the monetary and financial code, which shall be enforced from the 1 January 2024.