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Higher cap requirements top list of insurers' concerns

Monday 14 June 2010 - by Andy Hickley

The threat of higher capital requirements is the biggest regulatory concern facing insurers, according to a survey of 150 insurance professionals.

Delegates at the CEA (the European insurance and reinsurance federation) conference in London on 11 June were asked what their biggest regulatory concerns were and 64 per cent opted for higher capital requirements, compared to 15 per cent who said it was the introduction of new taxes.

Of the audience, 7 per cent voted for additional regulatory reporting while 14 per cent went for new corporate governance requirements.

Aegon Netherlands CEO and chairman Alex Wynaendts agreed with the assessment. He stated that although the insurance industry had successfully negotiated the financial crisis, that changes will have to occur.

He said: "Despite some difficulties, the industry has weathered the crisis. We have relied on risk management models which by in large have worked. From here common sense is needed, these scenarios which we thought were impossible have happened. Even 'risk free' products are no longer risk free. We will see a recalibration of risk/reward ratios, and in one way or another, there will be a need for higher capital reserves."


The panellists agreed that the insurance sector did not pose a systemic risk compared to the banking sector.

Zurich Financial Services CEO of Asia-Pacific and Middle East Geoff Riddell said: "Insurers have slow debts, they don't die in waves - they die in isolation. The reality is that they eliminate systemic risks by mitigating them. You can come up with disasters which really affect us, such as 9/11, but we show that we facilitate society in dealing with a crisis, we don't create one."

CEA president Tommy Persson called for regulators and policymakers to ensure that regulatory responses apply to their appropriate sectors.

"The assumption that what is valid for banking must be valid for insurance is too simplistic. The crisis did not originate in the insurance sector but we see a tendency among regulators not to recognise this, even though the insurance industry has shown resilience to the worst effects of the crisis."


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