New set of regulations 

The Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) will gradually adopt a new set of regulations, which will replace the current sets of regulations for the financial and insurance sectors. The preparation of individual regulations and guidelines commenced in 2011. The reform will take place gradually, with preparatory work taking account of pending national and EU legislative changes. The reform is scheduled for completion by the start of 2013.

The key principles of the reform are:

  • The set of regulations will be divided into subject areas, but individual regulations and guidelines will take account, if necessary, of institution-specific requirements and differences between small and large market participants.
  • Binding regulations and recommendatory guidelines concerning the same matter will be issued in the same document, but as clearly distinguishable elements. If necessary, examples and instructions for application will be provided.
  • The regulations and guidelines will contain references, where necessary, to the relevant legislation and the binding technical standards and non-binding recommendations issued by the new European supervisory authorities.

The new FIN-FSA set of regulations is composed of the following main sections:

  1. Commencement of activities
    • the section includes supervised entities’ authorisations, registrations and notifications
  2. Organisation of supervised entities’ operations
    • the section includes organisation of supervised entities’ internal governance, internal control and measures regarding prevention of money laundering
  3. Accounting, financial statements and management report
    • the section deals with supervised entities’ accounting, financial statements and management report
  4. Capital adequacy/solvency, risk management, technical provisions and related coverage
    • the section deals with supervised entities’ capital adequacy/solvency and risk management
  5. Code of conduct
    • the section deals with supervised entities’ marketing, conduct of business  in customer relationships and customer contracts
  6. Operation of securities markets
    • the section deals with issues related to securities markets, such as prospectuses, securities issuers’ disclosure obligation, the obligation to disclose major holdings, insider registers and transaction reporting.

During the transitional period ie prior to full changeover to the new framework, new FIN-FSA regulations and guidelines will be numbered consecutively. Since 21 March 2011, FIN-FSA has issued the following regulations and guidelines:

  • Regulations and guidelines 1/2011: Available in Finnish (Vakuutusmarkkinoilla toimivan yhteisön konekielisten valvontatietojen toimittaminen Finanssivalvonnalle) and in Swedish (Försäkringsmarknadssammanslutningars överföring av elektroniska tillsynsuppgifter till Finansinspektionen)
  • Regulations and guidelines 2/2011. Available in Finnish (Vakuutusmarkkinoilla toimivan yhteisön valvonta-asiakirjojen toimittaminen Finanssivalvonnalle) and in Swedish (Försäkringsmarknadssammanslutningars inlämning av handlingar för tillsyn till Finansinspektionen)

21 March 2011