Insurance Insight: Solvency II setbacks taking toll on insurer budgets

23 May 2012

Rising numbers of insurers believe the industry will miss the January 2014 compliance deadline for Solvency II, according to a survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of Deloitte.

The survey of 60 UK-based insurers found that 37 per cent fear that the industry will fail to meet the compliance deadline, up from 24 per cent last year. In addition, 73 per cent of respondents said that implementation setbacks have taken a toll on budgets, with 42 per cent of insurers blaming Solvency II for increasing programme costs by more than 5 per cent.

Rick Lester, lead Solvency II partner at Deloitte, said:

"The primary underlying cause for concern is the continued uncertainty around the detailed requirements of Solvency II and the fact that these are unlikely to be clarified until relatively close to the go-live date. This means there will be not much time for insurers and regulators to finalise their arrangements and approach with complete knowledge of the rules.

"Delaying the implementation of the final rules has come at a price for insurers, and one in three respondents is concerned about the additional costs of delays. The smallest insurers have suffered the biggest dents in their original budgets, while non-life insurers have incurred bigger hits than their life company counterparts."

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