Since October 3, 2018, the Financial Superintendency, through External Circular 020, gave recognition, within the local market, to the managing agencies, usual in international markets.
Through the aforementioned circular, foreign reinsurers, registered within the REACOEX, were given the opportunity to indicate the managing agencies that had their authorization to accept risks on their behalf.
The recognition of this figure represented a great advance in the updating of the reinsurance market in Colombia, but its regulation was not very broad and was limited to the aforementioned possibility of registering names of managing agents.
The absence of regulation has raised doubts as to the different possibilities that exist when it comes to registering this type of agencies, and also as regards its limitations.
Precisely, one of the concerns that arose related to the possibility of setting up in the country a managing agency that, according to its nature, would act on behalf of a reinsurer located abroad.
In a recent decision of the Financial Superintendency, this doubt has been resolved, indicating that it is not possible to register an entity domiciled in Colombian territory as a managing agency. It was indicated that managing agencies must operate from abroad, because if they do not do so, they would violate the existing prohibitions for foreign institutions in the field of insurance, in particular, the impossibility of promoting or advertising services in Colombian territory directly, or through employees, agents or contractors sent to the country.
This sets an important precedent when it comes to interpreting the requirements to be complied by this type of agencies and the provisions of Circular 020 of 2018.
