18 June 2012

Risk.net: Member States call for delay to Solvency II

The Czech Republic and Sweden have warned that the slow progress in finalising Omnibus II will mean national regulators and insurance companies will not have adequate time to prepare for the introduction of the new regulatory requirements.

Until the Omnibus II Directive is adopted – which is now not expected to take place until the final quarter of 2012 as the final text is still being negotiated – Solvency II's detailed rules cannot be finalised. To accommodate the delays, an emergency Directive, published last month, proposed extending the transposition date of Solvency II to June 30, 2013.

The Czech Republic has called for Solvency II to be delayed for a year until January 1, 2015, and warned that the current timetable for implementing the new regime would "create a legal uncertainty".

Separately, Sweden said that postponing the proposed transposition date still did not provide adequate time for the implementation of Omnibus II into national law. It said it would be unable to transpose the Solvency II Directive into national law until at least the end of 2013.

But consultants say that, despite these calls, the implementation date for Solvency II is unlikely to be delayed. Paul Clarke, global Solvency II leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), based in London, suggests any delays would be more implemented through transitional measures. "The primary stakeholders remain wedded to January 2014. There is a strong view that it is important to the credibility of the process, and the credibility of Europe as the standard-setter in this area, that there is not a further delay. The flexibility is really around transitional provisions rather than further wholesale deferral of the start date", he says.

John McKenzie, a principal and consulting actuary at consulting firm Milliman in London, suggests that many insurers would welcome a delay in order to achieve a favourable resolution to vital technical issues. "There are concerns in various places about how quickly the technical description is going to take to finalise and how quickly countries are going to be able to align themselves and adopt the legislation. The eurozone problem keeps rumbling along and fundamentals are being questioned", he says.

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