Conduct of Business Risk and its Management

The IAIS Application Paper on Approaches to Conduct of Business Supervision (“the COB Supervision paper”)1 points out that, historically, insurance supervisors have sought to protect policyholder interests mainly by focusing on the financial soundness of individual insurers and, in more recent times, extending this focus to the financial soundness of insurance groups and conglomerates. Although it has long been recognised that supervisory systems should also protect consumers from unfair or abusive business practices, this has typically been regarded as secondary to maintaining financial soundness.