Mutual Insurance and Reinsurance for Information Systems

A mutual insurance company
incorporated in Belgium, owned by the members and operating for the members. It only insures cyber risks.

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What is MIRIS?

MIRIS is a mutual insurance company incorporated in Belgium, owned by the members and operating exclusively for the members. It only insures cyber risks. It was granted an operating license during December 2022 and began underwriting on 1^st January 2023

Who can buy insurance from MIRIS?

Only the members. Membership of MIRIS is predetermined and exclusive. It is a “capitalised mutual” and membership is only granted after payment of the capital. This is different from the “commercial mutuals” where the payment of premium confers membership.

How can a company become a member of MIRIS?

Prospective members need to go through a screening process both for their financial strength and their cyber risk management capability. The Board of Directors of MIRIS gathers the output of the screening process and decides whether to submit a membership application to the General Meeting of all the members, who then decide whether to accept the new member.

Are there different types of member?

No, there is only one type of member. All members pay the initial capitalisation, all members participate in the General Meeting, all members have one vote at that meeting. Furthermore, to ensure the continuing status as a mutual association, all members must maintain an insurance policy at all times during their membership (new members have a “grace period” so that their first policy aligns with their annual policy cycle)

When do the MIRIS insurance policies incept?

The first policy issued by MIRIS incepted on 1 January 2023. Individual members’ policies can incept at any time during the year, to reflect the annual renewal date chosen by the member.

How does the MIRIS capacity work?

For underwriting years 2023 and 2024, MIRIS allocates up to euro 25 million of capacity to each member. MIRIS will operate in coinsurance with the insurance market, taking the wording and pricing from the market. The minimum attachment point for MIRIS will be euro 10 million.

Depending on the underwriting performance of MIRIS, the capacity granted is expected to increase to euro 30 million in the third year.

What will be the territorial scope of MIRIS?

MIRIS is a European insurer, and can only accept members from the EU. Its license is for direct insurance, but its Belgium domicile means it can also accept incoming reinsurance where necessary. It can cover the activities of its members worldwide (subject of course to sanction limitations), but through policies issued in Europe. It has been through a stringent anti-trust review to ensure that the members’ activities outside Europe are not in breach of local competition regulations, and steps have been taken to address issues which have arisen.

Will MIRIS have a Risk Control function?

The CISOs of the members have formed a group with two purposes. The first is the screening of new members, since the performance of MIRIS depends on maintaining an aggregate risk profile better than the market; the second is to share risk management best practice between the members to ensure the ongoing high quality of the members’ risk management.

Will the premium for MIRIS share of the capacity be the same as the market leader’s premium?

Because it’s a mutual association, MIRIS collects an “annual contribution” and not a premium, although in practice it works in the same way. The share of the risk taken by MIRIS will be priced at the same level as the market leader premium, but with a percentage discount.

Will MIRIS pay brokerage to the intermediary?

No. MIRIS will not pay brokerage, unless the insured member elects to include brokerage in his gross premium

Will MIRIS be reinsured?

The objective of MIRIS is to provide capacity irrespective of the conventional market fluctuations. The business plan has been created on the basis of no inward reinsurance; however MIRIS is free to buy reinsurance if favourable opportunities arise.

How can MIRIS guarantee its solvency during the early years?

MIRIS will start with adequate capital to comply with Solvency II, and apply a conservative underwriting model. Actuarial stress tests show a very low probability of depletion of the required capital reserves. If this were to happen, the members will be subject to “supplementary calls”, similar to the mechanism used by P&I clubs.

Will MIRIS declare dividends to its members?

No. MIRIS is a “not for profit” mutual association. Its underwriting surplus is put into a reserve account, where it will accumulate and be available to underpin the capacity granted to members.

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