A CRITICAL CONTEXT
The insurance industry operates in a highly regulated environment, and with regulatory demands continuously evolving as regulations are amended and adopted, keeping pace can be a real challenge.
Until recently in France, personal life insurance contracts, private pension plans and company pension plans were paid by the insurer only upon the beneficiary’s request. However, from January 2016, new insurance regulations came into force changing the rules, and as a result insurers are now responsible for actively contacting potential beneficiaries.
Overall, several billion Euros were due to be paid to tens of thousands of customers. Potential risk to insurers, however, was huge, as the Prudential Control Authority (ACPR) carries out regular audits and requests regular reporting updates, promising heavy fines to those found in breach.
One of the problems faced when handling escheated (inactive) contracts is the reliability of client information: addresses have often changed, companies have closed down or people have passed away. These changes are often not communicated to insurance companies.
In order to fulfill its regulatory duties, our client, one of the world’s largest insurance firms, selected Jira to help teams work through a large-scale backlog of escheated contracts.