This week ITFA published its revised guidelines on CRR-compliant insurance policies. The guidelines were first published in 2016 to assist banks with navigating the complex rules for credit risk mitigation that apply to non-payment insurance policies.

Sullivan's London insurance team is very pleased to have worked with ITFA to update the guidelines to reflect recent regulatory developments, including the Prudential Regulation Authority's policy statement on the use of certain types of credit risk mitigation (published in March of this year).

The ITFA guidelines provide a useful overview of the structure and content of insurance polices required to achieve capital relief under the CRR (being the EU regulation that prescribes financial institutions' capital requirements). In addition, the guidelines cover key points arising out of the Insurance Act 2015, as well as containing an Annex providing some market-standard wording for certain clauses, including those relating to nuclear exclusions and sanctions.

Further details are available and the updated version of the guidelines, which can be viewed by members on ITFA's website, is likely to be of great interest to banks and other institutions that use credit insurance to mitigate trade finance risk.

The Sullivan team advising in relation to the revised guidelines was led by the Head of the UK Insurance and Disputes Practices, Marian Boyle, with Managing Associate Hannah Fearn in London.