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‘Major wave’ of Solvency II drafts in May

Wednesday 25 January 2012 – by Andrew Hickley

Eiopa's headquarters, located in Frankfurt - photo by Eiopa

The insurance industry should expect a “major wave” of public consultations in the early summer as the European insurance watchdog prepares to finalise Solvency II standards for September 2012.

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority will issue a host of draft standards and guidelines between May and June as it finalises the new risk-based insurance standard, it said on Monday.

Standards and guidelines that will be developed further include specifying solvency capital requirements and own funds, the authority said as it released a work programme of its year ahead. Work is also targeted in relation to supporting national supervisors as they implement rules on reporting and disclosure, finalising guidelines for the own risk and solvency assessment, and setting guidance on technical provisions relating to the valuation of assets and liabilities.

Of this work, Eiopa will also look to assess the consistency between IFRS valuations and Solvency II valuation approaches, according to the programme.

The document says: “More than 10 years of preparation, with discussions, compromises and newly developed ideas not just within Europe, but also worldwide, have established a supervisory regime for Europe that will mean a great leap forward for the safety and stability of its insurance industry and policy holders.

“By the end of 2012, Eiopa will be ready to collect the new data from national supervisors based on Solvency II reporting requirements, further develop its analytical strength and coordinate more closely the work between national supervisors in preparing for the day-to-day supervision under the new regulation.”

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The Solvency II standard will need to be transposed into member states’ national law by 2013 to allow for its full use from January 2014.

Eiopa said it will also grow in size over the next year, with staff numbers planned to increase from 46 to 69 and its budget increasing from €10.6m ($13.7m) to €15.6m ($20.2m).

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