In an administrative decision dated 24.11.2017, the FMA decided to no longer consider the GRAWE Group (a group of undertakings pursuant to Article 2 no. 12 of the Financial Conglomerates Act (FKG; Finanzkonglomerategesetz) with GRAWE Vermögensverwaltung Versicherungsverein auf Gegenseitigkeit as the ultimate parent undertaking) as a financial conglomerate as per the definition set out in Article 2 no. 14 FKG with effect from 30.12.2017 pursuant to Article 3 para. 3 FKG, second sentence, second instance.
The determining factor for this decision was on the one hand the fact that the total assets of the smaller financial sector (the banking sector), that in accordance with the system used in the FKG was significantly below the threshold of EUR 6 billion, as well as the fact that since the introduction of Directive 2009/138/EC (Solvency II) a comparable system of group supervision to the FKG has existed in terms of its effectiveness. The transposition of the aforementioned Directive in the Insurance Supervision Act 2016 (VAG 2016; Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz 2016), in conjunction with the structure of the GRAWE Group, guarantees that both the Austrian Financial Market Authority as the supervisory authority for the supervision of the group as well as the international supervisory authorities receive all the required information. Due to the equivalence of reporting in accordance with the FKG and the VAG 2016, no further reporting in accordance with the FKG is required, and therefore the cut-off point of 30.12.2017 was duly chosen.