10 September 2013

Risk.net: Postponed Omnibus II vote casts doubt on Solvency II 2016 launch

The postponement to March 11, 2014 comes as the political negotiations to hammer out a final draft of Omnibus II resume after the summer recess, despite positive developments in informal negotiations over the past couple of months. The delay to the Parliament's vote is fuelling concerns that the targeted January 2016 implementation date for Solvency II is now almost unfeasible and that the European Union (EU)-wide insurance rules will have to be delayed by another year.

An implementation date of 2016 is still possible if European policy-makers could pass Omnibus II in the autumn and finalise the remaining elements of Solvency II – the level II delegated acts and level III implementing technical standards and guidelines – in sufficient time for national regulators to transpose the rules and allow both regulators and the insurance industry time to prepare.

A decision could be made known in the next few days. Solvency II's implementation date is still technically still set at January 2014. "The European Commission is able to push it back with a so-called ‘quick-fix Directive', but it has to propose such a Directive before September 15, says Lieve Lowet, Brussels-based partner at consultancy ICODA European Affairs, or there will not be enough time for publication.

European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) chairman Gabriel Bernardino still believes a January 1, 2016 implementation date is realistic. A major part of the level 2 text has already been consulted upon in 2011, but the European Council and the parliament have the right to comment. This will probably take about three months. Despite the fact that the EU is holding parliamentary elections in the spring, it would be possible, says Lowet, for the level 2 text to be approved before the end of 2014. This is usually followed by the publication of guidelines for supervisors. Eiopa has been working behind the scenes on the level 3 text, so experts believe this is unlikely to become an issue.

It is less clear how things would unfold after that. The Directive should set a deadline for the transposition of rules to national legislation. Legally speaking, says Lowet, this should only apply to the parts of the Omnibus II Directive that are not part of Solvency II, as the transposition deadline for the latter was June 2013.

Against the industry's expectations, the Commission did not put forward a quick fix to push back that deadline. Instead, it informally let Member States know it would refrain from starting infringement procedures for non-transposition.

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