Specialist advisory for Spain's insurance and social security sector

Spain’s insurance sector concentrates 341 active entities employing approximately 59,989 workers registered with Social Security, and displays a structural solidity that is rare among service industries: the five-year survival rate stands at 82.6%, one of the highest of any financial or service sector in Spain. With a 17.0% share of the European insurance market, Spain occupies a position of real weight on the continental risk map, underpinned by globally scaled groups alongside a fabric of mutuals and regional companies with deep local roots. The Solvency II Directive — fully applicable since 2016 and currently under revision through the Solvency II Review proposal — imposes risk-based capital requirements, a governance system with four key functions and a remuneration policy that the DGSFP supervises with increasing rigour. Added to this is the application of the DORA Regulation from January 2025, which requires digital operational resilience frameworks across the entire sector.

At BMC we advise life and non-life insurance companies, insurance mutuals, brokers and brokerage firms, pension fund managers and reinsurers on all tax, legal and compliance aspects of their operations. Our services include reviewing and optimising the tax treatment of technical provisions, assisting in administrative authorisation processes before the DGSFP for new entities or the extension of authorised lines of business, advising on mergers and acquisitions of insurance portfolios or entire entities, and implementing AML/CTF compliance programmes tailored to the specific nature of insurance risk. We also advise on designing GDPR-compliant data policies for sector-specific processing activities covering underwriting, loss adjusting, fraud prevention and telematics.

The 82.6% five-year survival rate is no accident: it reflects the stability of insurance business models, but also the intensity of the regulatory effort that sustains that solidity. Entities operating in this sector cannot afford improvisation in corporate governance or in their relationship with the regulator. The key functions required by Solvency II must be covered by individuals whose suitability has been approved by the DGSFP, conflicts of interest in insurance distribution are regulated by the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD), and variable remuneration policies must be subordinated to long-term solvency criteria. We support boards of directors and audit and risk committees of insurance entities in meeting these obligations, as well as in their relationships with the supervisor during inspections and special supervisory processes.