Insurer recovery and resolution regime enacted; energy-tax relief extended

The Gesetz of 25 September 2026Bund, promulgated in Bundesgesetzblatt I Nr. 275 on 30 September 2026Bund, implements Directives (EU) 2025/1 and (EU) 2025/2Bund: it creates a dedicated recovery and resolution framework for insurers and reinsurersBund and amends the supervisory framework under the Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz. At its centre stands the new Versicherungs-Sanierungs-und-Abwicklungs-Gesetz (VSAG) as Article 1Bund, flanked by amendments to the VAG, the Finanzdienstleistungsaufsichtsgesetz, the fee regulation, the Sanierungs- und Abwicklungsgesetz for banks and further statutes.

The Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht becomes the Abwicklungsbehörde alongside its supervisory roleBund, with statutory duties to keep the two functions operationally independent, including separate staff, reporting lines and decision procedures. The Federal Ministry of Finance is the competent ministryBund: it must be informed of every decision without delay, and no decision with direct financial effects may be taken without its consentBund. Resolution action requires three cumulative findings: the undertaking is failing or likely to failBund, no private-sector or supervisory alternative can avert the failure within a reasonable timeBund, and resolution is in the public interest because ordinary insolvency, including through the insurance guarantee schemes, would not achieve the resolution objectives to the same extentBund. Those objectives are protecting policyholders, beneficiaries and claimants collectively, safeguarding financial stability, ensuring continuity of critical functions, and protecting public funds.

Where the conditions are met, BaFin may order one or more of five instruments: orderly run-off management, sale of the business, a bridge undertaking, transfer to an asset management vehicle, and write-down or conversion of liabilities. Notably, the life, health and non-life Sicherungsfonds under §221a VAG take on the tasks and rights of a bridge undertaking, and assets, rights and liabilities may be transferred to them without their consent where policyholder interests and continuity of cover so require. Policyholders share the loss-absorption logic of bank resolution: shareholders, policyholders, beneficiaries and other creditors must be treated no worse than in ordinary insolvency, with any shortfall compensated from the new resolution fund. That fund, the Abwicklungsfonds für Versicherungsunternehmen, is a Sondervermögen des BundesBund financed by contributions from the industryBund, with BaFin determining the funding need and allocating it across insurance lines.

On prevention, supervisors may require pre-emptive recovery plans, with at least 60 percent of the German life and non-life markets coveredBund, while small and non-complex undertakings are out of scope unless they pose a specific national or regional riskBund. Simplified requirements apply depending on size, business model, risk profile and interconnectedness. All plans and information must be filed in German, electronically through the procedures BaFin designates, at the undertakings' own cost.

The act also carries an energy-tax tail. Articles 11 and 12 extend the reduced-rate windows in §68 EnergieStG and §109a EnergieSt-DV: the relief periods of 1 May to 30 June 2026 are joined by a second window from 1 October to 31 December 2026Bund, with no relief under §§47a(2) and 56 for products sourced in those windows and relief for claims arising in between measured at the regular §2(1) rates. Those two articles entered into force on 1 October 2026Bund; the remaining provisions take effect the day after promulgation except for the deferred commencements in Article 13(2) and (3), with the VSAG core (Article 1) and the further VAG amendments (Article 3) following on 30 January 2027Bund and the Article 2 VAG amendment on 29 January 2027Bund. Legal basis: Gesetz zur Umsetzung der Richtlinien (EU) 2025/1 und (EU) 2025/2 (VSAAG), BGBl I 2026 Nr. 275.