Publication de la lettre circulaire 23/3 du Commissariat aux Assurances relative au questionnaire quantitatif d’évaluation harmonisé des risques d’exposition au blanchiment et au financement du terrorisme à destination des Intermédiaires concernés

On 7 February 2023, the Commissariat aux Assurances (CAA) published Circular Letter 23/3 relating to the quantitative questionnaire for the harmonized assessment of the risks of exposure to money laundering and terrorist financing for concerned intermediaries.
This circular letter is addressed to insurance brokers, insurance brokerage companies, and agents mandated by several life insurance companies not belonging to the same group, who have distributed/distribute individual insurance contracts relating to the branches of life insurance from appendix II of the amended Law of 7 December 2015 on the sector of type insurance, namely “Other savings and investment” contracts, and/or “bearer” contracts.
The purpose of this circular letter is to present the quantitative questionnaire for the harmonized assessment of exposure risks money laundering and terrorist financing (hereinafter the Quantitative Questionnaire (QQ)) for concerned intermediaries, specify the procedures for introducing the QQ, and finally to define the content, format and dates for collecting quantitative data from of the QQ.
Indeed, given the constant evolution of the legislative and regulatory framework, the guidelines on money laundering and terrorist financing risk factors issued by the European Banking Authority (EBA), of the work of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regarding the risk-based approach, as well as the findings noted by the CAA in the context of on-site inspections, the CAA wishes to extend the QQ harmonization of the risks of exposure to money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) for life insurance companies to concerned intermediaries, while adapting it to the specificities of the intermediation sector (Annex I: Quantitative Questionnaire for concerned intermediaries). The QQ will thus make it possible to display the updated level of ML/FT risk exposure of contracts at any time.
Concerned intermediaries will therefore have to complete Annex I from 1 July 2023 for:
– each entry into a business relationship established from 1 July 2023 that leads to the conclusion of a Contract;
– each movement or significant modification of a contract; and
– each review and update of documents, data or information.
Furthermore, the initial score for each contract (and each question), as well as all subsequent scores, must be archived in an electronically usable system and be accessible in order to guarantee a reliable audit trail (i.e. each score and its evolution must be able to be traced).
The CAA asks the concerned intermediaries to provide on an annual basis all relevant data relating to entering into a business relationship which led to the conclusion of contracts, and all relevant data relating to the stock of contracts which have been the subject of one (or more) evaluation(s) following the QQ since 1 July 2023.
More specifically, for the first collection, the concerned intermediaries must communicate no later than on 31 January 2024 all relevant data relating to entering into a business relationship established from 1 July 2023 which led to the conclusion of contracts during the calendar year 2023, and all relevant data relating to the stock of contracts which have been the subject of one (or more) evaluation(s) following the Quantitative Questionnaire since 1 July 2023.
For subsequent years, the Intermediaries concerned must communicate by 31 January of each year at the latest all relevant data relating to entering into a business relationship which led to the conclusion contracts during the previous calendar year, and all relevant data relating to the stock of contracts as of 31 December of the respective calendar year which have been the subject of one (or more) evaluation(s) according to the Quantitative Questionnaire since 1 July 2023.
The CAA will send personalized EXCEL files to the concerned intermediaries before the end of 2023. Appendices I a), b), c) and d) must reach the CAA by computer and only by the secure transmission channels set up placed by the CAA. The implementation of and compliance with this circular letter will be monitored by the CAA i) during on-site inspections, and ii) by the annual communication of data from the QQs.
This circular letter is accompanied by the following annexes:
– Annex I – Quantitative Questionnaire for the concerned intermediaries
– Annex I a) – Breakdown of responses by question (entering into a business relationship)
– Appendix I b) – Breakdown of contracts by score (entering into business relationships)
– Annex I c) – Breakdown of responses by question (contracts in stock)
– Annex I d) – Breakdown of contracts by score (contracts in stock)
– Appendix II – Glossary (with definitions of capitalized words used in the this circular letter).