Solvency II will be delayed until 31 December 2012, the EU has confirmed.
Speaking on 4 May 2010 at a public hearing on Solvency II, Michael Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, confirmed that the two month delay was in order to bring implementation of the regime into line with the financial year end of most European insurance undertakings. Mr Barnier also used the opportunity to highlight the importance of participation in the forthcoming QIS5 exercise and provide a very brief summary of the regime’s objectives, being to:
- strengthen the solidity of insurers and the security of those insured, and thus the stability of the European financial system;
- establish more consistent and comprehensible standards in a European framework by:
a. codifying 14 directives into a single unified text, promoting the consistency of the information that insurers have to provide;b. contributing to the establishment, at European level, of a common culture of risk management at the heart of insurance undertakings; and
3. contribute to the modernisation of the European insurance sector and to its competitiveness.
