11.1. Insurance
Under applicable law in force in the Argentine Republic (Law No. 20091, as supplemented), in order to conduct activities as insurer, an authorization from the National Superintendence of Insurance (SSN for its acronym in Spanish), which is the controlling authority of said law and the insurance market, is required.
To obtain such authorization, certain requirements of a technical, financial and legal nature, must be met, among which the following must be mentioned:
• Legal creation under the laws of the Argentine Republic, adopting one of the corporate types required by law for controlling purposes and having the insurance business as its sole and exclusive purpose;
• Compliance with qualification requirements demanded by administration entities;
• Compliance with minimum capital requirements imposed by resolution depending on risks assumed by insurer;
• Approval of technical and contractual plans.
In addition, the SSN must analyze and consider if it is convenient to have a new insurer enter the Argentine insurance market. However, the SSN is not currently rejecting any insurer if the aforementioned requirements are met.
11.2. Reinsurance
Resolution No. 35615 issued in February 2011 completely amended the reinsurance market in the Argentine Republic.
In fact, as from the effective date of such system, there exist two manners to conduct business within the Argentine territory: (i) under the local reinsurance system; or (ii) under the exception system for authorized reinsurers.
Local reinsurers must be incorporated locally or must establish a branch of the foreign company in Argentina, and must also evidence compliance with the minimum capital requirement. After incorporation, local reinsurers can conduct business without any limitation whatsoever, but subject to control by the National Superintendence of Insurance.
Reinsurers operating under the exception system, however, must establish at least one permanent representative office in Argentina, and they are not subject to any capital requirement compliance. Once the branch or permanent representative office is created, they may only conduct business involving amounts exceeding USD 50,000,000 or, by way of exception, upon prior proceedings conducted before the controlling authority.
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