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Dear Mr Osanik,

The National Bank of Ukraine expresses its respect to the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Estonia and refers to your kind technical assistance on some issues regarding the implementation of particular provisions  Directive 91/674/EEC on Insurance accounts and their application by insurance companies operating in Estonia.

In particular, we are working on the implementation of  the CSRD Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 amending Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, Directive 2004/109/EC, Directive 2006/43/EC and Directive 2013/34/EU as regards corporate sustainability reporting).  This Directive amends Directive 2013/34/EU. Both Directives use an indicator of net turnover for classification of undertakings by size. For insurers and banks, net turnover should be determined in accordance with the provisions of Council Directive 91/674/EEC* and Council Directive 86/635/EEC**, respectively (amended point 5 of article 2 of Directive 2013/34/EU).

Taking into account the previous answer of the  Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (below), that all financial statements of insurers are prepared according to the IFRS, so the Directive 91/674/EEC is not applied for the preparation of financial statements, could you please clarify whether you have adopted certain provisions of Directive 91/674/EEC to calculate the net turnover of an insurer. Or, perhaps, the insurers’ net turnover is calculated on the basis of IFRS financial statements. If so, is this considered to be an adoption of the Directive 2002/2464?

Also, if available, could you comment how the issue of calculating the ‘net turnover’ for banks was resolved, please.

We would be grateful for references to the documents developed to adopt Directive 2002/2464 (in the matter of net turnover), if they are publicly available.

* Council Directive 91/674/EEC of 19 December 1991 on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of insurance undertakings.

** Council Directive 86/635/EEC of 8 December 1986 on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of banks and other financial institutions.

We look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your cooperation.

Thank you in advance!

With kind regards,

Volodymyr

Glory to Ukraine!

Volodymyr Kuchyn

Head

Office for European and International Relations

International Department

National Bank of Ukraine

Tel   +380442301892

Cell +380503301189

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УВАГА! Цей лист надійшов з зовнішньої адреси, яка не належить Національному банку України!

Dear Liudmyla,

Thank you for approaching us. Unfortunately, we are not able to give you comprehensive response this time.

CSRD Directive have been implemented in to Estonian legislation throught Article 3 point 14 to 17 of Accounting Act English version can be found here: https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/522012025001/consolide. However, you are right, the term „turnover“ is not used there. The implementation is under the responsibility of our Ministry of Finance. We recommend to turn to them in order to gain explanations regarding the Accounting act wording. Probably wise thing is to contact their

 Financial Information and Intelligence Policy Department, which all contacts can be found under Financial and Tax policy section.

Best regards,

Helen

Dear Helen,

We are very grateful for the answers you have provided to us. We would also like to clarify some questions.

We are interested in the CSRD Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 amending Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, Directive 2004/109/EC, Directive 2006/43/EC and Directive 2013/34/EU as regards corporate sustainability reporting).  This Directive amends Directive 2013/34/EU. Both Directives use an indicator of net turnover for classification of undertakings by size. For insurers and banks, net turnover should be determined in accordance with the provisions of Council Directive 91/674/EEC* and Council Directive 86/635/EEC**, respectively (amended point 5 of article 2 of Directive 2013/34/EU).

Taking into account your previous answer, that all financial statements of insurers are prepared according to the IFRS, so the Directive 91/674/EEC is not applied for the preparation of financial statements, could you please clarify whether you have adopted certain provisions of Directive 91/674/EEC to calculate the net turnover of an insurer.

Or, perhaps, the insurers’ net turnover is calculated on the basis of IFRS financial statements. If so, is this considered to be an adoption of the Directive 2002/2464?

Also, if available, could you comment how the issue of calculating the ‘net turnover’ for banks was resolved, please.

We would be grateful for references to the documents developed to adopt Directive 2002/2464 (in the matter of net turnover), if they are publicly available.

* Council Directive 91/674/EEC of 19 December 1991 on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of insurance undertakings

** Council Directive 86/635/EEC of 8 December 1986 on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of banks and other financial institutions

Best regards,

Snigurska Liudmyla,

Chief Accountant, Director of Accounting Department

Tel:          +38 (044) 230-17-25

e-mail: [email protected]

Sincerely yours,

Liudmyla Snihurska

Chief Accountant, Director of the Accounting Department

National Bank of Ukraine

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Dear Helen,

Please accept our great gratitude for your prompt reply and technical assistance. We highly appreciate your consultation and provided information will be  useful  to us during our screening process and negotiation on the Ukrainian way to the EU membership.

I would like to introduce Ms Snihurska (in cc) [email protected] – NBU Chief Accountant, Director of the Accounting Department who will return to you directly in case of additional questions.

Thank you for your collaboration! Looking forward to further fruitful bilateral interactions.

Sincerely yours,

Volodymyr

Volodymyr Kuchyn

Head

Office for European and International Relations

International Department

National Bank of Ukraine

Tel   +380442301892

Cell +380503301189

Facebook § Twitter § Flickr § Youtube § Instagram

Telegram § LinkedIn

УВАГА! Цей лист надійшов з зовнішньої адреси, яка не належить Національному банку України!

Dear Mr Kuchyn,

Thank you for approaching us. I am writing in response to your letter of December 4^th.  Please find the answers to your questions below.

Questions 1-3

According to the Estonian Accounting Act, all insurance undertakings must comply with the international financial reporting standards adopted by the European Commission pursuant to the procedure provided in Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the application of international accounting standards (IFRS). IFRS should be followed in both consolidated and separate financial statements. For the insurance undertakings Directive 91/674 and local financial reporting framework are not applicable. Only one set of financial statements is required in Estonia.

The requirements of Directive 2013/34 have been transposed into the Estonian Accounting Act. Among other things, there are requirements for the annual report of the consolidation group as well as exemptions from the obligation to prepare the annual report of the consolidation group.

Question 4

The Regulation 1606/2002 is applicable to those companies with securities listed on a regulated market in the EU. Please note that in Estonia there are no insurance undertakings whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market in Estonia or other EU member states.

According to the Regulation 2019/815 (ESEF Regulation), listed companies are required to prepare their consolidated annual financial reports in European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) and mark up IFRS consolidated financial statements according to the ESEF taxonomy which is basically IFRS taxonomy.

In Estonia, listed companies must make their annual reports available via market news to the stock exchange here https://www.nasdaqbaltic.com/statistics/en/news and simultaneously submit to Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (Finantsinspektsioon) via Estonia’s OAM here https://oam.fi.ee/en/borsiteated to be stored. On the OAM webpage, anyone can choose category “Annual financial report” to access market announcements containing the annual financial reports in ESEF.

More information about transparency requirements for listed companies in the EU is available here: https://finance.ec.europa.eu/capital-markets-union-and-financial-markets/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/transparency-requirements-listed-companies_en

Question 5 

According to the Insurance Activities Act insurance undertaking is required to disclose the annual report, the proposal for and the resolution on the distribution of profits or the covering of losses and the sworn auditor's report within two weeks after their approval at the general meeting of shareholders, but no later than four months after the end of a financial year on the website of the insurance undertaking and to make these available at the registered office and the place of business of the insurance undertaking. In addition, insurance undertaking prepares and disclose the interim financial reports regarding 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of the financial year within two months after the end of an accounting period.

Annual reports are also electronically submitted to the Commercial Register. Reports are available to everyone free of charge here: https://ariregister.rik.ee/eng (E-Business Register).

Question 6

From the financial reports we get a true and fair view of the insurance undertakings financial position, economic performance and cash flows.

As the financial reports are publicly available, they are not submitted to the Finantsinspektsioon. We use disclosed reports. We only submit insurance undertakings regular supervisory reports to EIOPA, we do not submit financial reports.

If you would like any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

With kind regards,

Dear Ms Vahur,

The National Bank of Ukraine expresses its respect to the Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority and refers to your kind technical assistance on some issues regarding the submission and publication of financial statements by insurance companies operating in Estonia due to the following related documents:

Regulation 1606/2002 (Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 July 2002 on the application of international accounting standards) requires companies with securities listed on a stock exchange of any member state of the European Union to prepare their consolidated financial statements in compliance with IFRS adopted in accordance with the established in the EU procedure. The Regulation also allows Member States to permit or require other companies to apply IFRS, adopted in accordance with the procedure established in the EU for preparing consolidated financial statements and/or annual financial statements.

Directive 91/674 (Council Directive 91/674/EEC of 19 December 1991 on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of insurance undertakings) and Directive 2013/34 ( Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings) set requirements for the annual financial statements of insurers (Directive 2013/34 sets requirements only to the extent that the provisions of this Directive are not comparable or contrary to the provisions of Directive 91/674). At the same time, there are no direct exceptions in these Directives for the fact that when using IFRS for preparing financial statements, it is no need/possible not to apply another generally accepted basis for financial statements (i.e., Directive 91/674 and Directive 2013/34).

Could you kindly provide us with the answers to the following questions:

1. Has Directive 91/674 been implemented in Estonia? If so, to what extent? Is there a requirement in place for insurers to comply with IFRS (for preparing financial statements) in your country? If yes, does this requirement applied to all insurers or for some groups/types of insurers?

2. What financial reporting framework is applied by insurers in Estonia: Is it Directive 91/674, IFRS or other framework (or perhaps national standards)? Do all the insurers prepare financial statements in accordance with the same framework? Or do different groups/types/kinds of insurers prepare financial statements according to different standards/requirements (e.g., some prepare statements in line with IFRS, while others — in line with Directive 91/674)? If so, what is the share of these each group? What regulation provides for this requirement?

3. Are insurers, which are required preparing annual consolidated accounts in accordance with IFRS adopted according to the procedure established in the EU, obligated to apply Directive 91/674 and, to some extent, Directive 2013/34, for preparing a second set of annual consolidated financial statements in addition to the financial statements in line with IFRS? In other words, the insurers submit two sets of annual consolidated financial statements, regardless of the requirements of Member States. If two sets of financial statements are prepared, which of the mentioned is to be published/released? Shall both sets be published? If only one set of financial statements (in line with IFRS) is prepared, what document relieves from preparing financial statements in compliance with said Directives, if IFRS are applied?

4. Is an accounting taxonomy applied in the EU for unifying and comparing data in financial statements of different companies? Are such financial statements publicly available? What framework shall be applied by the companies for preparing, submitting, and publishing taxonomy-based financial statements (IFRS or the abovementioned Directives)? Which authority is to receive these financial statements?

5. Which financial statements shall insurers submit to regulatory/supervisory authorities? Please, specify the authorities. Shall they submit only regulatory reporting, or both regulatory and financial reporting? Shall insurers submit financial statements prepared in line with Directive 91/674 to regulators if they are required to prepare financial statements in line with IFRS?

6. For what purposes does the national regulator use insurers’ financial statements (as themselves)? Does the national regulator submit insurers’ financial statements or any information based on insurers’ financial statements to any international/supranational regulator (i.e. EIOPA or other)? If so, what particular financial statements (based on Directive 91/674, IFRS or other) are used?

We look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your cooperation.

Thank you in advance!

With kind regards,

Volodymyr

Glory to Ukraine!

Volodymyr Kuchyn

Head

Office for European and International Relations

International Department

National Bank of Ukraine

Tel   +380442301892

Cell +380503301189

Facebook § Twitter § Flickr § Youtube § Instagram

Telegram § LinkedIn