In the 2009 Progress Report, general assessments on insurance are made under the “Economic Criteria” title while other assessments are made under different chapters. Under Chapter 4 (Free Movement of Capital) money-laundering is mentioned; assessments on technical reserves are made under Chapter 17 (Economic and Monetary Union). A thorough analysis is made under Chapter 9 (Financial Services).

In the 2009 Progress Report it was indicated that the alignment remained partial in the case of insurance.

In the 2009 Progress Report, regarding the insurance sector, the following assessments were made under the title “Economic Criteria”:

“The banking sector, by far the largest part of the financial sector, increased its share from 70% to 77%. The relative size of the insurance sector decreased slightly to 2.6%, about the same size as that of the mutual funds.”

Under Chapter 4, Free Movement of Capital, following assessments are made:

“In January 2009 measures were taken to ease the domestic asset-holding requirements applicable to the technical reserves of insurance companies.”

“The Turkish authorities prepared an action plan to tighten up enforcement of the Law on the Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and adopted a number of regulations to implement this law. Turkey introduced a requirement to establish compliance programmes for banks, capital market brokerages, postal services, insurers and pension companies.”

“The Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) issued guidelines for banks,capital market brokerages, insurers and pension companies on compliance with their obligations.”

“Turkey made progress on liberalisation of its insurance legislation.”

Under Chapter 17 Economic and Monetary Union, following assessments were made:

“The Under-Secretariat of the Treasury published an implementing regulation which allows insurance, reinsurance and private companies to present not only domestic but also foreign securities as collateral to fulfil their technical reserve requirements. This was a positive development in the direction of prohibition of privileged access for the public sector to financial markets.”

Under Chapter 9, Financial Services, the following assessments are made regarding the insurance and occupatonal pensions:

“Some progress has been made in the fields of insurance and occupational pensions. A new Cabinet decree allowed ships and yachts registered in Turkey to take out insurance cover not only from Turkish but also from foreign insurance companies established abroad. TheTreasury published an implementing regulation which clarified the minimum requirements for members of the insurance arbitration committee. Another implementing regulation laid downstandards for provision of compulsory and optional insurance cover linked to retail loans. TheTreasury adopted a new implementing regulation and started actuarial supervision of special pension schemes operated by foundations and associations. As for tariff liberalisation in the compulsory third party motor liability insurance, the Treasury increased the upper limit on approved tariffs from + 20% to +100%. Furthermore, the insurance arbitration committee has become operational and 37 insurance companies participated in the new arbitration mechanism for the non-court settlement of disputes between consumers and services providers.However, prudential and supervisory standards in both banking and the non-bank financialsector were not strengthened. There has been no progress towards establishing an independent regulatory and supervisory authority in the insurance and occupational pension sector, falling short of another priority of the Accession Partnership. Turkey largely fulfils the requirements on financial market infrastructure, but alignment remains partial in the case of insurance.”