The Chilean Securities and Insurance supervisor (SVS) has put out its draft regulation for public consultation. This supplements and modifies the general regulation, Norma de Carácter General (NGC) Nº 309 que dicta principios de gobierno corporativo para aseguradoras y reaseguradoras, published in 2011. The draft regulation covers the following aspects, which were not present in the earlier regulation:

Risk Management System

The entire document places emphasis on the responsibility of the board to guarantee the suitability of the institutions' risk management system. The following aspects are of special importance:

• Risk appetite

Boards must define the nature and extension of the significant risks to which the entities are willing to bear (Risk Appetite) in order to achieve their strategic objectives and meet their business plan. The directors must therefore have an adequate understanding of the risks to which the entity could be exposed, and the techniques for quantifying and managing risks.

The board must have a system or procedure specifically designed to define, implement and monitor that the Risk Appetite it has defined is being respected.

• Risk strategy and policies

The board is responsible for reviewing and approving the entity's general strategy for risk and its specific policies for dealing with the material risks it faces. It must ensure that the risk management policies and strategies are reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

It is also the board's responsibility to keep up with best international practices in corporate governance, establishing a reporting system from the senior management to the board, so it is duly apprised of the maximum levels of risk tolerance and any other important circumstance affecting the company's risk policy in a timely manner.

In all cases, any change in the company's business strategy must be accompanied by an analysis of the risk associated to it and its impact on the risk management system management.

• Internal evaluation of risk and solvency (ORSA)*

The main novelty is that it introduces the insurers' duty to carry out an internal evaluation of its risks and solvency at least once a year in order to determine its present and future solvency. Every year, before 31st March, the company must submit a report on the results obtained, approved by the entity's board. This must include a detailed description of the internal assessment process, documents, calculations, results, and an action plan to correct any weaknesses detected.

The Risk Management System’s procedures, methodologies and criteria should be approved by the board and reviewed periodically, either internally by employees who do not perform executive duties (independent of the business areas) or externally by specialist firms.

Own assessment and reporting to the SVS

Insurance companies must submit all necessary information to the supervisor, the SVS, that it needs to assess compliance with the principles and practices of corporate governance. Every two years they must carry out their own assessment of these principles and practices, analysing to what degree their corporate governance structures comply with the provisions of the regulation.

They will notify the SVS of the outcome of their own assessment, and submit an accompanying plan of action, describing the specific measures they will take to correct the weaknesses detected. The plan must be approved by the board and submitted each year prior to 30th June.

The provisions contained in the Bill are supplementary to the NCG 385, described in Progreso 4. Thus, the insurance companies that have constituted themselves as listed companies are not only obliged to comply with the requirements described above, but also to report to the SVS with the information required by Standard 385.

* ORSA (Own Risk and Solvency Assessment)