A.M. Best Examines GDPR Issues for European Insurers at Implementation

Operational and legal complexities, as well as preparing for the tight reporting window for breach notification, are the main challenges that re/insurers have met on their path toward complying with the implementation of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on May 25, 2018. These findings are published in a new report based on A.M. Best's discussions with rated companies in the months leading up to the implementation of the new regulation.

The conversations aimed to determine re/insurers' level of preparedness as well as the impact that the new regime is having on their enterprise risk management (ERM) function. The Best's Briefing, GDPR: The Issues for European Insurers at Implementation, states that the regulation, which applies to personal data held by companies, has prompted the re/insurance sector to undertake a comprehensive data-mapping exercise.

Alvise Argenton, senior financial analyst at A.M. Best, said, "A.M. Best has been closely monitoring the process of alignment to GDPR among its rated companies as part of their ERM assessment, with a particular focus on associated operational, regulatory and reputational risks. The GDPR provides an opportunity for companies to take a closer look at their own policies and procedures that relate to data use and management. GDPR preparation has helped some insurers and reinsurers to strengthen or refresh their risk mitigation capabilities, leading to the introduction of new safeguards to manage the risk of non-compliance, including basic technical measures like data encryption."

To have a sense of the progress made by re/insurers over the past year, A.M. Best asked rated entities to self-assess their level of preparedness as of April 2018, approximately a month ahead of the GDPR implementation date. Information obtained through this exercise indicated that the market was largely confident that it would be prepared for implementation of the new regulation, with an average score of 7.7 on a scale from 1 to 10. This was a moderate improvement on the score of 7.0, reported in A.M. Best's previous assessment in June 2017.

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