Insurance Brokers

It has come to the attention of the Registrar of Companies that certain Insurance brokers may not be acting in compliance with their obligations as set out in the Companies Act 2014, to file a full set of financial statements in the Companies Registration Office, with their annual return.

Section 15 of the Companies (Accounting) Act 2017 sets out the qualifying criteria for small and micro sized companies who wish to claim an abridgment exemption from filing full accounts under the terms of section 352 of the Act.

However, it should be noted that the Act excludes certain types of companies from claiming this exemption.

Section 280A (4) of the Companies Act 2014 now provides:

(4) This section shall not apply to a company if it is—
(a) a holding company, or
(b) an ineligible company.

 
Iineligible entities means undertakings that:

(a) have transferable securities admitted to trading on a regulated market of any Member State,
(b) are credit institutions,
(c) are insurance undertakings, or
(d) are:
(i) undertakings that—
(I) fall within any of the provisions of Schedule 5, or
(II) are otherwise designated, by or under any other enactment, to be entities referred to in point (1)(d) of Article 2 of the Accounting Directive, or

(ii) undertakings that are designated, by or under the law of any other Member State, to be entities referred to in point (1)(d) of Article 2 of the Accounting Directive and ‘ineligible company’ shall be read accordingly

 
Therefore, as Schedule 5 companies cannot qualify as small or micro companies under the terms of section 280a they cannot claim either an abridgment or audit exemption under the terms of section 352 and 358 of the Act.

Please note: Insurance Brokers cannot claim either the audit or abridgment exemptions as provided for in Section 352 and 358 of the Act, they must file full audited accounts at all times.