Overview

On 20 April 2010, the Bank of Italy, the supervising authority for the Italian banking market, published guidance for banks and other financial institutions who are involved in the revolving credit card market. The document is relevant to the insurance market as it covers some material issues relating to the distribution of insurance products embedded into, or sold in connection with, revolving credit cards.

The guidance criticises the current market practice where, in order to push sales and commissions, insurance products are automatically sold to clients without consideration of their adequacy or any sufficient explanation of policy terms.

The guidance clarifies what best practice should be, both in terms of the transparency of the documentation for such products but also in terms of compliance with the intermediaries' conduct.

This briefing from Norton Rose takes a closer look at the issues and the implications of the changes. Please click to read more.