The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) announced that Martina Andexlinger has been appointed head of the insurance, pension fund and provident fund supervision division.

She succeeds Peter Braumüller, who has headed this division for more than two decades and is retiring.

Andexlinger has held senior positions at the FMA for many years, most recently in the integrated supervisory areas of conduct and money laundering prevention.

She has also played a key role as head of the "Fit For Future" transformation programme in driving the strategic development and modernisation of the FMA.

Commenting on the appointment, FMA Executive Board members, Mariana Kühnel and Helmut Ettl, said: “We are delighted to welcome Martina Andexlinger, an experienced supervisor from within the FMA, to our senior management team.”

Andexlinger added: “Insurance supervision rests on an exceptionally strong professional foundation, built up over decades with a high level of expertise.

"Building on this, I will focus on modern, effective, and consistently risk-based supervision, underpinned by transparent, clear communication. The aim is and remains to contribute to the stability of the financial market and to the protection of policyholders and beneficiaries."

The FMA said Braumüller's retirement marks the end of an era in Austrian and European insurance supervision.

He has provided significant impetus at both national and European levels – including within the framework of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and its predecessor bodies. The FMA’s Executive Board thanks him for his outstanding services to the Austrian financial centre.

Kühnel and Ettl thanked Braumüller for more than two decades, “during which he steered the FMA’s insurance supervision with a steady hand through the financial crisis, the period of low interest rates and the pandemic, and helped shape it at the highest European level”.

---