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Articles & Insights
Analysis and commentary on financial innovation, regulation, AI, Open Finance, and SupTech.
17 February 2025 · 2 min read
Embedded supervision of decentralized finance
The European Commission has just published a report presenting the outcome of a study undertaken by IBM Promontory for the Commission on embedding supervision in decentralized finance (DeFi). The project comprised four distinct phases: identifying use cases and protocols to assess, defining elements of comparison (benchmarks) with supervision in traditional finance (TradFi), developing a software application to collect data from the ledger, and analyzing the collected data to assess the potenti
17 February 2025 · 1 min read
The European Commission's 2025 work plan and insurance
The European Commission's 2025 work plan has just been published, and for the insurance and financial sectors, the key takeaway is that the Financial Data Access (FiDA) proposal has been moved back under pending proposals compared to the leaked version! What does this mean? Regardless of whether you support or oppose FiDA, trilogues will most likely start now. If you still want to influence the negotiations, this is where you should focus your efforts. For background, every year, the Commissio
17 February 2025 · 1 min read
EIOPA Consults on Its Opinion on Artificial Intelligence Governance and Risk Management
The EU insurance watchdog, EIOPA, is seeking feedback on its Opinion on Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance and risk management. The Opinion provides supervisors and insurance undertakings with guidance on how to interpret and implement insurance sector provisions in light of AI systems' use in insurance. It clarifies the key principles and requirements outlined in insurance sector legislation that should be considered when deploying AI systems. The Opinion applies to AI systems that are n
11 February 2025 · 1 min read
Frequently Asked Questions about the Data Act
The EU Data Act sets horizontal rules on data access and use, ensuring fundamental rights protection and benefiting the European economy and society. It increases data availability, particularly industrial data, and promotes data-driven innovation. The Act also ensures a fair distribution of data value among all participants in the data economy. The Data Act will apply from 12 September 2025. The European Commission has now published updated Q&As on its implementation. Alongside the Data Go
11 February 2025 · 1 min read
Digital Finance in the EU: Navigating New Technological Trends and the AI Revolution
This second EU Supervisory Digital Finance Academy (EU-SDFA) e-book provides an overview of key trends and topics relevant to the Academy. The EU-SDFA is a technical support project launched by the European Commission in October 2022, in cooperation with the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) and the Florence School of Banking and Finance (Robert Schuman Centre, EUI). The e-book is divided into two sections, comprising a total of nine contributions. The first section builds on last year’s
11 February 2025 · 2 min read
AI Act AI system definition and insurance
The Commission published Guidelines on the definition of an AI system to facilitate the application of the first AI Act’s rules. This is also important for the insurance sector to better understand what falls within and outside the scope of the AI Act. The definition of an AI system entered into application on 2 February 2025, together with other provisions set out in Chapters I and II of the AI Act, notably Article 5 on prohibited AI practices. As the definition of an AI system is crucial for
11 February 2025 · 2 min read
EU AI Act AI Literacy Practices in insurance
Introduction Under the EU AI Act, insurers and intermediaries that provide or deploy AI systems must ensure adequate AI literacy among staff and relevant stakeholders. This requirement is flexible to accommodate the diversity and complexity of AI tools. To support AI literacy, the European Commission has launched a Living Repository, an evolving collection of best practices. Among the contributors are Gjensidige and Generali, which share their AI use cases and training initiatives. Generali's
10 February 2025 · 2 min read
European Commission's Annual Work Programme: FIDA Proposal to Be Withdrawn?
The European Commission will publish its Annual Work Programme tomorrow. This document informs the public and other institutions about the Commission’s political commitments, including plans to introduce new initiatives, withdraw pending proposals, and review existing EU legislation. According to a leaked version I have seen, the Financial Data Access (FIDA) proposal will be withdrawn. The stated reason is that it is not aligned with the Commission’s current objectives. The proposal would intro
5 February 2025 · 10 min read
InsurTech 2050 | Mihkel Mandre, Lyfery
The goal of the InsurTech 2050 Interview Series is to create a platform where InsurTech founders, CEOs, and top insurance regulators and policymakers share their journeys and insights. This series aims to: * Inspire and support fellow founders and regulators/policymakers. * Foster closer collaboration and understanding between these two groups. * Provide thoughtful, in-depth discussions on the future of insurance and its biggest challenges. Today, I´m speaking with Mihkel Mandre from Lyfer
3 February 2025 · 1 min read
Artificial Intelligence and economic and financial policymaking
At their final meeting under the Italian G7 Presidency on 19 December 2024, the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors received a report from a High-Level Panel of Experts on “Artificial Intelligence and Economic and Financial Policy Making.” Commissioned by the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, the report was led by Dr. Luis Videgaray and prepared by a panel of leading computer scientists, economists, and policy analysts. It explores AI's implications for the economy an
3 February 2025 · 1 min read
Insurers Partnering with Academia to Advance AI Innovation
Leading insurers are increasingly collaborating with top academic institutions to explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the insurance sector. These partnerships aim to drive innovation, enhance risk assessment, and improve operational efficiency. Generali's Collaboration with MIT Generali has partnered with the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a globally recognized leader in applied research. The coll
3 February 2025 · 2 min read
EU AI Act, AI literature and insurance
The AI Act aims to ensure a high level of protection for fundamental rights, health, and safety, while the insurance sector legislation, already applicable to the use of AI by insurance supervised entities, establishes principles on conduct and prudential objectives. AI Act follows a risk-based approach, classifying AI systems according to different risk levels (unacceptable risks, high risk, limited risk and minimal risk). In the insurance sector, the AI Act identifies as high-risk those AI s