[citation needed] At that time, the Assecuranz-Bureau was set up under Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria due to the steadily increasing distrust of the Ministry of the Interior to supervise the booming insurance industry.

[citation needed] The tasks were defined in the founding acts as follows: "The state supervision of insurance companies must generally extend to the precise observation of the legal and statutory provisions, as well as to those circumstances which determine the ability of the institution to meet its future obligations at all times.

[citation needed] This law was passed in the summer of 2001 after lengthy political discussions about the establishment of an integrated financial supervision system.

[citation needed] The FMA was established as an institution under public law with its own legal personality, and it was entrusted with the supervision of banks, insurance companies, pension funds and the entire securities sector.

[citation needed] Since a complainant does not have party status in an administrative procedure, the FMA does not provide any information on the progress and outcome of the proceedings because of their obligation to maintain privacy.

[citation needed] Since January 2014, it has also been possible to report abuses or violations of supervisory law in a company that is subject to FMA supervision anonymously via a whistleblower process.