The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has named Gabriel Bernardino as its first chairman.

Bernardino is currently director general of the Directorate for Development and Institutional Relations at the Instituto de Seguros de Portugal, and was elected by the EIOPA’s board of supervisors. He represented EIOPA’s predecessor, CEIOPS, as chairman between October 2009 and December 2010.

The appointment follows the announcement earlier this week that the authority had elected its management board, and named Director of the Commissariat aux Assurances, Luxembourg, Victor Rod as acting chair.

EIOPA’s chair is an independent representative and chairs the meetings of the authority’s board of supervisors as well as the meetings of its management board. The chair represents EIOPA to the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and the European Parliament and is elected for five years. The term can be extended once.

EIOPA was established as a result of reforms to the structure of financial supervision in the European Union initiated by the European Commission.

The Frankfurt-based authority is an independent advisory body to the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission. It was established on January 1, and currently operates a staff of 28.

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