Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge's Insurance and Reinsurance Department recently published its latest Newsletter, Insurance & Reinsurance Review - September 2010, which contains nine articles about various topics in the insurance and reinsurance industry. read more
|
The fifth Quantitative Impact Study on the Solvency II implementing measures (QIS5) was launched by the European Commission (the Commission) on 23 August 2010. The study will run until November 2010 and the Commission notes that it is aiming for a participation rate of at least 60% of EU insurance and reinsurance companies and 75% of EU insurance groups. Of particular importance to the Commission is participation by smaller insurance companies and insurance providers specialised in specific business lines. read more
|
On 14 July 2010, the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) published its draft advice on equivalence assessments to be undertaken in relation to three areas of the Solvency II directive, being reinsurance, group supervision and group solvency. CEIOPS proposes that in its first wave of assessments, Bermuda and Switzerland should be considered for equivalence in all of these areas and Japan in respect of reinsurance only. read more
|
EAPD's own Ambereen Salamat and Chris Collins were asked by Complinet in its Mid-Year Roundup what the biggest regulatory and compliance challenge this year will be and above all, Solvency II was the resounding response. read more
|
Solvency II will be delayed until 31 December 2012, the EU has confirmed. read more
|
On 15 April 2010, the European Commission (Commission) published for consultation draft technical specifications for the QIS5 exercise. read more
|
On 31 March 2010, the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors ( CEIOPS) published the first of its Level 3 guidance for Solvency II. read more
|
The NAIC's International Insurance Relations (G) Committee (the "Committee"), chaired by Commissioner Kevin McCarty (Florida) met on Friday, March 26, 2010, during the NAIC Spring National Meeting. The Committee received an update on International Strategy and Action Plans and discussed International Association of Insurance Supervisors ("IAIS") strategic planning, including the Common Framework or Supervision of Internationally Active Insurance Groups ("Common Framework"). read more
|
It has been reported that Karel van Hulle, head of insurance and pensions at the European Commission, confirmed that Solvency II will come into force in October 2012. Speaking at an Insurance Institute of London lecture at Lloyd’s on 17 March 2010, he denied that there were sound reasons to push back the deadline. read more
|
The head of the Insurance and Pensions Unit at the European Commission, Karel Van Hulle, confirmed that a meeting had been scheduled in early May to discuss extending the current October 2012 implementation deadline for the Solvency II regulatory regime to 1 January 2013. read more
|
The Bermuda Monetary Authority (the BMA) published a consultation paper on 5 February 2010 entitled "Consultation Paper on The Bermuda Monetary Authority's Proposed Insurance Groups Regulatory Framework" (the Paper). The Paper outlines the BMA's proposal for the implementation of a group-wide supervisory regime and outlines the conditions under which the BMA would seek to be considered the Group-Wide Supervisor. read more
|
The Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors ( CEIOPS) has recently published its final set of advice on Solvency II Level 2 Implementing Measures and the first consultation on Level 3 Guidance. read more
|
On 8 February 2010, Lloyd's released its 2010 to 2012 strategy plan, including specific corporate actions for 2010. The strategy plan follows a detailed review of the market's position involving more than 50 managing agents, brokers and market associations. read more
|
The Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) has recently announced that it has agreed to further enhance supervisory cooperation with the Swiss insurance supervisor, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). read more
|
In an interview with Bloomberg, Chaucer's chief executive officer Bob Stuchbery has indicated that Chaucer will consider redomiciliation out of the UK this year, noting that he would much prefer that Chaucer remained in the UK under a more competitive corporation tax environment. read more
|
On 2 November 2009, the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) released its third set of advice on Solvency II Level 2 implementing measures. read more
|
On 2 July 2009, the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) released their second set of advice on Solvency II Level 2 implementing measures. The first set of advice was released on 26 March 2009 ( available by clicking here) and the third and final set of advice is expected in November 2009. read more
|
CEIOPS, the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors, has published a report on securitisation in the insurance sector. read more
|
We recently reported that the Solvency II directive had been approved by the European Parliament ( see the post here). The final stage of the European legislative process has now been completed with the European Commission adopting the directive on Tuesday 5 May. The implementation date, by which each of the EU member states must bring into force implementing regulations, is stated in the directive to be 31 October 2012.
|
On 22 April 2009 the European Parliament approved the proposed Solvency II directive. This brings implementation of the regime in October 2012 another step closer. read more
|
In light of the current financial crisis, the CEA, the European Insurance and Reinsurance federation, has stressed the importance of reforming the regulation and supervision of the financial services industry. The CEA suggested that the crisis suffered within the financial markets has had a lesser impact on the insurance industry and, for that reason, most insurers do not require the same state assistance that has been provided to the banking industry. It also warned against over-regulation. read more
|
Following agreement on the Solvency II Directive framework ( see our blog here), a recent CEIOPS Members Meeting held on 25/26 March 2009 has identified the importance of the implementation of the Solvency II regime.
|
The Solvency II framework directive has finally been agreed and the proposals are expected to be formally passed in the next six weeks by both the European Parliament and the European and Financial Affairs Council (a subset of the Council of Ministers). read more
|
The high-level group on financial supervision in the EU, chaired by Jacques de Larosière, published an initial report recommending 'repair' of the oversight of financial services across Europe. In addition to de Larosière, the group is composed of seven senior European figures from the financial services industry and its regulators, including Leszek Balcerowicz, former president of the National Bank of Poland, and Callum McCarthy, former chairman of the UK's Financial Services Authority. read more
|
A key part of the new Solvency II regime, due to come into force in 2012, looks set to be removed or watered down following a recent meeting of the EU's Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin). The group supervision and group support proposals approved by the European Parliament would allow assessment of capital and risk across an insurance group and increased co-ordination of the relevant supervisors. read more
|
The Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) has published the full report on its fourth Quantative Impact Study (QIS4) on the proposed Solvency II regime (the Report). read more
|
The Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) has confirmed that it is reviewing the Solvency II supervisory framework project in light of the recent turmoil in financial markets. read more
|
On 8 August 2008, the Bermuda Monetary Authority (the BMA) announced significant enhancements to Bermuda’s solvency and disclosure regulations for insurance which were intended to help Bermuda achieve recognition as having equivalent regulatory standards to those in Europe ( see our previous post here).
|
The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament recently approved changes to the text of the Solvency II Directive. The changes included amendments to the group supervision regime so as to ensure that local supervisors of subsidiaries in a group have a greater role in the overall supervision of that group. read more
|
The FSA has recently issued a DP in preparation for Solvency II. Entitled "Insurance risk management: The path to Solvency II", the DP explains key elements of the Solvency II regime and identifies areas that UK insurers should be considering over the next 18 months to prepare for implementation in 2012. read more
|
CEIOPS has presented its preliminary findings from QIS4 to the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. CEIOPS confirmed that the target participation rates in QIS4 had been exceeded, with 34% of individual EEA insurers and 65% of cross-border groups taking part in the study. read more
|
Mr McCreevy noted in a recent speech to the EUROFI Conference in Nice, that discussions on the proposed Solvency II Framework Directive have been progressing at an impressive rate in both the European Council and Parliament. read more
|
Following the turbulent events on Wall Street in recent days, the Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA) has issued a statement proclaiming the relative health of the European insurance industry. read more
|
CEIOPS has published an issues paper on the supervisory review process and undertakings' reporting requirements under Solvency II. ( See: Issues Paper) The issues paper covers some of the main components of Pillar II (concerning the way supervisors conduct their reviews) and Pillar III (supervisory reporting and public disclosure) elements of the Solvency II regime.
|
On 10 June 2008, the CEA issued a press release stating that it believed that failure to adopt a risk-based approach to the calculation of the MCR would perpetuate the disadvantages of the current regulatory system, Solvency I. Michaela Koller, director general of the CEA, said that, "Approaches to calculating the MCR that are not consistent with the overall system could jeopardise the effectiveness of the whole Solvency II regime" and called for the MCR to be linked to the solvency capital (SCR) requirement so that both reflect the true risk profile of the insurer. The CEA suggested that the MCR should be calculated as a percentage of the SCR. read more
|
On 28 May the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) published two Papers of final advice to the European Commission for the Solvency II project, entitled "Advice to the European Commission on aspects of the Framework Directive Proposal related to Insurance Groups" and "Advice to the European Commission on the Principle of Proportionality in the Solvency II Framework Directive Proposal". read more
|
On 13 May 2008 the European Commission and the United States issued a joint statement through the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC), committing themselves to reaching the shared objective of economic integration. This followed a TEC forum on insurance issues such as US reinsurance collateral requirements, the EU's Solvency II directive and the US Treasury Department's recent recommendation of an optional federal charter system for the insurance industry. read more
|
On 12 May 2008 the Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA) and the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) issued a joint statement calling for the formation of an E.U.-U.S. bilateral forum on insurance and reinsurance issues. read more
|
The European insurance and reinsurance federation, the CEA, has responded to two consultation papers issued by the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS ). read more
|
A discussion paper on the UK's proposals to reduce the administrative burden on insurance groups operating in the EU was launched on the 22 April 2008 by the Treasury and the FSA. ( See: Discussion Paper) As has previously been discussed in a recent blog, the FSA has recognised the need for further development of the existing arrangements for regulatory cooperation and endorses the idea of cooperation among regulators and the creation of supervisor colleges.
|
On 25 March Lloyd's issued Market Bulletin Y4139 (the Bulletin) providing additional guidance for the preparation of the 2009 individual capital adequacy (ICA) submissions for run-off and specialist RITC syndicates. The guidance should be read in conjunction with Market Bulletin Y4128 (the Guidance), issued on 29 February, which sets out the general guidance for 2009 ICA submissions to Lloyd's. read more
|
On 26 February 2008, the European Commission issued an amended proposal to the Solvency II Directive Proposal (COM (2007) 361) which was adopted on 10 July 2007. The July 2007 version of the Solvency II Directive Proposal represented a recast of 13 existing Directives in the insurance and reinsurance sector, together with new solvency provisions. read more
|
As reported here - CEIOPS Meeting Discusses Draft Advice to European Commission on Key Solvency II Issues], the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) has now released it's Consultation Papers of Draft Advice on Aspects of the Framework Directive Proposal related to Proportionality and on Insurance Groups. read more
|
A members' meeting of the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) recently discussed two important Solvency II project's draft Advices to the European Commission. read more
|
Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, recently gave a speech at the Insurance Institute of London about the European Commission's policy priorities for the insurance sector. Solvency II is currently the key project and will remain so until its transposition, which is intended to take place in 2012. read more
|
The CEA, the representative organisation for European insurers and reinsurers has called for further impact analysis of Europe's insurance regulation standard Solvency II. The CEA announced at the European Commission public hearing that the latest qualitative impact study (QIS4) on Solvency II needs to align more closely with the framework directive published in July 2007. read more
|
The Bermuda Monetary Authority ( BMA) has published its 2008/9 Business Plan ( click here to view the Plan). The Business Plan sets out the BMA's goal to become internationally recognised as a leading risk-based financial regulator.
|
In order to help prepare the ground for the development of implementing measures once the Solvency II proposal has been adopted, the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions (CEIOPS) will run a fourth quantitative impact study between April and July 2008. read more
|
On June 10, 2007, the European Commission in Strasbourg formally introduced the Solvency II Directive. Solvency II proposes to modify current capital requirements for insurance companies. read more
|