Line4

In forceInsurers: conduct of business (national)Last checked 11 November 2026

Conduct of business return for insurers (COBR)

A regulatory return listed by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), Ireland.

A return on the firm's business with Irish personal consumers: compliance staff and accredited staff, the book of personal consumer policies by product, detailed complaints data, sales and strategy, early encashment and advertising spend. The Central Bank analyses it for possible consumer detriment and uses it for key risk indicators in its PRISM conduct risk scoring. Source

Official title: Annual Online Conduct of Business Return (Insurance)

The facts

Who files
The notes say it applies to regulated entities operating in the State, including firms passported in from other EEA states, and was piloted with insurance providers with a significant retail presence. Source
How often
The reporting page calls it the Annual Online Conduct of Business Return; the notes on compilation and the template say it is bi-annual, with H1 (January to June) and H2 (July to December) returns. Source
Deadline
20 business days after the last day of the reporting period (notes on compilation, section ii). Source
Format
Excel. Excel template; the notes refer to the Online Reporting System. Source
How it is filed
Filing routes recorded for the CBI: Central Bank of Ireland Portal (formerly the Online Reporting System, ONR); MiFIR transaction reporting Machine to Machine channel; Online Reporting System (ONR), now linked as 'Credit Union Auditor Reporting'; Email to the Central Bank. See how firms file with the CBI.
Status
In force
Group
Insurers: conduct of business (national)

Templates (6)

The tables and forms inside the return. Plain name first, the CBI's code in brackets.

  • General (A)
  • New Complaints Received (B)
  • Complaints Resolution (C)
  • Complaints FSO Findings (D)
  • Complaints Redress (E)
  • Managing General Agents (F)

Sheets of the Insurance COBR template. Source

Validation rules

31 rules, as counted from the CBI's published material. They are written for people to read; software cannot run them as published. Source

How they are written: Plain-English and formula-style rules in the PDF notes.

The rules, on centralbank.ie

How they were counted

Paragraphs starting 'Validation Rule' in 'Conduct of Business Return - Insurance: Notes on Compilation' (December 2017).

Counts are in the CBI's own unit, so they are not comparable with other regulators' counts.

Public data

No published data from this return was found. No published data from this return was found on the Central Bank pages checked. Source

Official documents (3)

The CBI's own files, with the size and SHA-256 fingerprint of each as downloaded on 11 November 2026, so anyone can tell whether a copy is the same version.

  • Reporting Requirements (Insurance & Reinsurance)

    List of returns · HTML

    The Central Bank page that lists the returns insurers and reinsurers file: quarterly and annual QRTs, SFCR, RSR, ORSA, the DAR peer review, internal model returns, NSTs, ECB add-ons, financial stability reporting, the unclaimed life certificate, auditors' reports and the conduct of business return.

  • Insurance COBR template

    Template · XLSX · 143.3 KB

    Six sheets: A. General, B. New Complaints Received, C. Complaints Resolution, D. Complaints FSO Findings, E. Complaints Redress, F. Managing General Agents. Titled 'Insurance Bi-Annual Conduct of Business Return'.

    SHA-256 c2626a270977show in fullc2626a2709775e2c321efe94c2338e5185af4190a236a881d11ea05a7e5c1fb0
  • Conduct of Business Return - Insurance: Notes on Compilation

    Instructions · PDF · 1.0 MB · December 2017

    Says the return is bi-annual (H1 and H2), due 20 business days after the period end, and gives 31 validation rules in the field notes.

    SHA-256 d1beb6e3a243show in fulld1beb6e3a2431304d491e23b10bf8c223ef9d19b80c55e5d7a569d8d7c73f4c8

Sources

Every page and document this return's facts were read from.

Knowing exactly what is collected, in what format and under which rules is the first step to real-time supervision. Line4 builds SupTech software for financial regulators that runs checks like these as each return arrives.

Line4's text and records here are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Please credit: “Source: Line4 regulatory submissions library (CC BY 4.0), https://www.line4.ai”. The regulators' documents, forms, taxonomies, rules and data belong to them: see CBI's reuse terms. This describes what regulators publish. It is not legal or regulatory advice: always rely on the regulator's own text.

Contains Irish Public Sector Information from the Central Bank of Ireland (https://www.centralbank.ie), copyright Central Bank of Ireland, re-used under the Bank's licence for re-use of public sector information (https://www.centralbank.ie/fns/re-use-of-public-sector-information). This library summarises it in plain English and links the originals; the Central Bank of Ireland does not endorse this library.

Last checked 11 November 2026.