Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 152: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will report on the requirements on life companies to contact the policyholders in respect of single premium investment bonds which have a distant maturity date; if his attention has been drawn to complaints that the standard format of communication encourages many persons to encash their policies; and if he will make a statement on the appropriateness of the procedures coming into operation ahead of the maturity date of the policy. [4341/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The requirements regarding information that must be provided by insurance undertakings to holders of life assurance policies are laid down in Part IIIA of the Insurance Act 1989 and in the Life Assurance (Provision of Information) Regulations 2001 made under that Part of the Act by the then Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The requirements in part reflect obligations laid down in EU Directive 92/96/EEC. The purpose of the requirements is to provide policyholders with relevant information about their policies.

I am informed by the financial regulator that it is unaware of complaints being made about the manner in which the regulatory requirements are being implemented by insurance companies and has not been requested to make any changes to these requirements. However, the regulator will shortly commence a public consultation process on a unified and harmonised code of conduct for all financial service providers and the issue of communication with investment policyholders on an annual basis will be addressed in this document.

Should it appear to the regulator that changes are necessary in order to better protect consumers, the regulator has power under the Act to make additional regulations. This follows from amendments made to the Act by the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act 2003, which transferred responsibility for insurance issues from the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to the regulator.