Where the insurance group company has a strong and lasting financial relationship with an undertaking which does not result from holdings within the meaning of 10° of Article L. 310-3, this relationship is defined by an affiliation agreement.
An undertaking may not affiliate to a société de groupe d’assurance defined in article L. 322-1-2, to a union mutualiste de groupe defined in article L. 111-4-2 of the Code de la mutualité or to a société de groupe assurantiel de protection sociale defined in article L. 931-2-2 of the Social Security Code unless its articles of association expressly provide for the possibility and it is not already affiliated to a société de groupe d’assurance, a union mutualiste de groupe or a société de groupe assurantiel de protection sociale.
The insurance group company may decide to operate without share capital provided that it has at least two affiliated undertakings and effectively exercises a dominant influence through centralised coordination over the decisions, including financial decisions, of the affiliated undertakings. If it meets these conditions, the insurance group company may be called a “mutual insurance group company”.
The undertakings affiliated to a mutual insurance group company may only be :
– mutual insurers or unions governed by Book II of the Mutual Code ;
– provident institutions or unions governed by Title 3 of Book 9 of the Social Security Code;
– mutual insurance companies governed by the French Insurance Code or mutual, cooperative or jointly-managed insurance or reinsurance undertakings with their registered office in another Member State of the European Union or party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area;
– mutual insurance group companies as defined in this article, mutual group unions as defined in article L. 111-4-2 of the French Mutual Code or social protection insurance group companies as defined in article L. 931-2-2 of the French Social Security Code;
– supplementary occupational pension funds when they are set up in the form of mutual insurance companies;
– mutual insurance companies or unions for supplementary professional retirement mentioned in Article L. 214-1 of the Mutual Insurance Code;
– institutions for supplementary occupational retirement mentioned in Article L. 942-1 of the Social Security Code.
A mutual insurance group company must include among its members either a mutual insurance company or a mutual insurance group company.
The operating conditions of mutual insurance group companies are set by decree in the Conseil d’Etat.