Recital 87

Investments that involve contracts of insurance are often made available to customers as potential alternatives or substitutes to financial instruments subject to this Directive. To deliver consistent protection for retail clients and ensure a level playing field between similar products, it is important that insurance-based investment products are subject to appropriate requirements. Whereas the investor protection requirements in this Directive should therefore be applied equally to those investments packaged under insurance contracts, their different market structures and product characteristics make it more appropriate that detailed requirements are set out in the ongoing review of Directive 2002/92/EC rather than setting them in this Directive. Future Union law regulating the activities of insurance intermediaries and insurance undertakings should thus appropriately ensure a consistent regulatory approach concerning the distribution of different financial products which satisfy similar investor needs and therefore raise comparable investor protection challenges. The European Supervisory Authority (European Investment and Occupational Pensions Authority) (‘EIOPA’), established by Regulation (EU) No 1094/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council and ESMA should work together to achieve as much consistency as possible in the conduct of business standards for those investment products. Those new requirements for insurance-based investment products should be laid down in Directive 2002/92/EC.