Insurance Core Principles, Standards, Guidance and Assessment Methodology

The Insurance Core Principles (ICPs) are the highest level in the hierarchy of IAIS supervisory material and prescribe the essential elements that must be present in the supervisory regime in order to promote a financially sound insurance sector and provide an adequate level of consumer protection.

Standards are directly under the ICPs in the hierarchy of IAIS supervisory material. Standards are linked to specific ICPs and set out key high level requirements that are fundamental to the implementation of the insurance core principles and should be met for a supervisory authority to demonstrate observance with the core principles.

Guidance material typically supports the core principles and/or standards and provides detail regarding how to comply with or implement a core principle or a standard. Guidance material does not set out new requirements but rather describe what is meant by the requirement.

The 2003 ICPs and all other IAIS Supervisory material (other principles, standards and guidance papers) have been restructured to fit in the new hierarchy. The 2010 Guidance paper on the treatment of non-regulated entities in group-wide supervision will be integrated at a later stage. The IAIS Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation and Information Exchange  (IAIS MMoU) does not fit in the hierarchy as it does not meet the definitions of core principle, standard or guidance material.

Assessment Methodology