Posted on October, 03 2022

Together with central banks and financial supervisors, insurance regulators and supervisors have a critical role to play in channeling financial flows towards sustainable activities. As risk sharing and investment managers, insurers play an instrumental role in enhancing climate resilience in communities and in accelerating the transition to a net-zero, nature-positive global economy. 

In 2021, WWF launched a SUSREG framework designed around banking regulation and supervision, central banking activities, and aspects contributing to an enabling environment for sustainable finance, providing  practical guidance to integrate climate and environmental considerations  which sets the basis for the SUSREG assessment and progress online tracker.  The SUSREG framework supports central banks, financial regulators and supervisors enhancing the financial sector’s stability and resilience to climate-related and broader environmental and social risks, while enabling the mobilisation of capital for the transition to a low-carbon, resilient and sustainable economy.  The tool aims to assess any progress and facilitate knowledge sharing, offering a practical way to build on existing good practices and improve understanding of how E&S risks can be integrated into central banks’ and financial supervisors’ activities. The new WWF SUSREG framework has now been extended to cover regulations pertaining to the insurance industry and will enable assessing the progress  made by insurance regulators and supervisors. 

It can be used by central banks, financial supervisors and policymakers to: 
 

• strengthen regulatory and supervisory practices by integrating environmental and social (E&S) considerations in financial and insurance regulations, guidelines and monetary policy operations
• benchmark themselves against peers in key markets worldwide and align with good practices;

By insurance regulators and supervisors to: 

•  understand the differences in the insurance regulations in the countries in which they operate (and those affecting the financial institutions in their portfolios);
•  formulate their ESG strategy by taking into consideration other countries’ best practices in insurance regulations;
•  support and inform their engagement with government entities and policymakers (and with banks in their portfolios).

By international financial standard-setters and initiatives to:

• benefit from independent, regularly updatedassessments and annual reporting on progress;
• build on the framework to establish roadmaps for integrating E&S considerations in global financial regulations and central bank activities;
• benefit from the science-based perspective of WWF on best practices regarding the integration of E&S risks.

It can also be used by academics, think-tanks and other non-governmental organisations to:

• better understand the differences in the insurance regulations related to E&S risks in key countries worldwide;
• assess the degree of integration of various E&S issues in financial regulation and central bank activities, and track progress.