In 2013, the European Directive 2013/50/EC pushed all annual financial statements of issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on regulated markets in the EU to be drawn up in a single electronic reporting format (ESEF), starting from 1 January 2020. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Financial Supervision Commission of Bulgaria (FSC) decided to postpone for one more year the implementation, allowing the companies to focus on the management of the pandemic crisis.

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published its December Financial Stability Report, shedding light on the financial stability risks in the European insurance and pension sector.

A broad coalition of industry federations - including Insurance Europe - has published a joint statement raising concerns about a set of draft recommendations published by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) in the wake of the European Court of Justice Schrems II decision.

On 18 December 2020, Standard & Poor's (S&P) confirmed its "A-" rating of UNIQA Insurance Group with a stable outlook. Positive factors in S&P's decision particularly included the company's strong market position in Austria, CEE and Russia, its leading role in health insurance in Austria and its "excellent" capital adequacy.

French insurance group GROUPAMA announced its Hungarian subsidiary - GROUPAMA Biztosito and OTP Banka d.d., Croatian subsidiary of OTP Bank, signed an agreement on the sale and purchase of 100% of the shares of the insurance company OTP Osiguranje.

BBVA Allianz Seguros, the new bancassurance joint venture between ALLIANZ Seguros and BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGENTARIA (BBVA) announced in April of this year, will begin to operate in Spain.

AEGON's Chief Risk Officer Allegra van HOVELL-PATRIZI has been elected as the new Chairlady for industry association CRO Forum. She will hold the position for the next 12 months.

AVIVA announced the appointment of Doug BROWN as CEO of UK & Ireland Life Insurance. He is currently CEO of Canada Life in the UK and will join AVIVA's Group Executive Committee, reporting to AVIVA Group CEO, Amanda BLANC.

Based on its 2020-2022 strategy, the Group plans to generate more than EUR 685 million in operating revenue and to close 2021 with a net profit above EUR 53 million, which translates into a planned return on equity of at least 11.5%.

According to a press release, Jerome Guilbert will be Chief Communications Officer at SCOR starting with January 4, 2021.

Rapid modernization, stability and consumer protection were the top priorities for the Bulgarian insurance market, as revealed during the latest international show of XPRIMM TIME for BUSINESS, aired on Wednesday, 16 December.

PERILS' initial estimate of the insured property market loss for the Izmir Earthquake, based on claims data collected from Turkish insurers, is TRY 532 million (EUR 55 million at exchange rate of 30 October 2020), the independent Zurich-based organization providing industry-wide catastrophe insurance data announced.

On the committee's recommendation, SCOR's Board of Directors has decided to separate the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. The separation will come into full effect following the General Meeting in the spring of 2022.

Insurance Europe has published its response to a joint consultation conducted by the European Commission and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) on the third technical report on Ecolabel criteria for retail financial products.

The Azerbaijan Insurers Association (AIA), together with the organizational support of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, is carrying out a large-scale training program with the help of experienced insurance employees of Turkey, Trend reports citing the AIA.

KNF, the Polish authority for the financial markets' supervision has issued on 16 December a document concerning the dividend policy in 2021 for financial companies, including insurance companies, reinsurance companies and insurance and reinsurance companies.

AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "a-" of Colonnade Insurance S.A. (Colonnade) (Luxembourg), a member of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Fairfax) [TSX: FFH] group of companies. The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

On December 16, 2020, 21 non-life insurers (GWP market share 55%, paid claims share 65%) and 10 life insurers (GWP share over 93%, paid claims share 98%) began the legal merger procedure, according to the website of the National Association of Insurers Ukraine.

From March 1, 2021, the sale of electronic MTPL policies will begin in accordance with the adopted Government decree "On additional measures to improve the procedure for providing electronic insurance services," UzReport informed.

In order to accelerate the insurer's digital transformation strategy, Generali Group and Accenture formed a joint venture named Group Operations Service Platform (GOSP) - that will leverage cloud technologies and shared technology platforms, according to a press release.