23 February 2021

IAIS 2021-2022 Public Roadmap

The Covid-19 pandemic is serving as a catalyst that is adding impetus and accelerating many of the key strategic themes identified in the Strategic Plan, including climate risk, technological innovation, cyber risk, issues of conduct and culture, and sustainable development.

1 Introduction

The IAIS Roadmap for 2021-2022 has been developed during a time of unprecedented
uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has had a severe health and societal
impact across the globe, while also causing significant economic disruption, the full extent of
which remains unknown. At the time of writing, there is some cause for optimism with the initial
rollouts of vaccines showing promise. However, the crisis continues to cause widespread
disruption, the effects of which will be felt for many years to come.

The pandemic has also had an impact on the activities of the IAIS, leading the Association to
adjust its business model and operations throughout 2020. Like most organisations, the IAIS
has transitioned since March 2020 to a “new normal” of staff working remotely and operations
taking place in a virtual environment. Despite the significant challenges, the IAIS has
continued to effectively progress key activities in 2020, while remaining mindful of the impact
of the crisis on our Members as they manage the response to Covid-19 in their own
jurisdictions.

Drawing on the experiences of 2020, the 2021-2022 Roadmap acknowledges the importance
of providing support to IAIS Members in responding to Covid-19, while concurrently not losing
momentum on key reforms and the strategic objectives set out in the IAIS Strategic Plan 2020-
20241.

2 IAIS Strategic Objectives 2020-2024

The Strategic Plan 2020-2024 sets out the High-Level Goals (HLGs) and Strategies of the
IAIS. It sets out how the IAIS will maintain and adjust its core functions of developing global
standards, supporting implementation and contributing to global financial stability, while
supporting our Members to proactively respond to a period of rapid change in a global
environment driven by technological innovation, shifts in consumer behaviour and societal
challenges.

Since adoption of the 2020-2024 Strategic Plan, the IAIS has made significant progress on its
post-financial crisis reform agenda, with the adoption in November 2019 of the Common
Framework for the Supervision of Internationally Active Insurance Groups (ComFrame), the
Holistic Framework for the assessment and mitigation of Systemic Risk in the Insurance
Sector (Holistic Framework) and the agreement by the IAIS Executive Committee (ExCo) on
Insurance Capital Standard (ICS) version 2.0 for a five-year monitoring period. In line with the
Strategic Plan, the IAIS has now shifted towards finalisation and implementation of agreed
reforms. This includes revision of ComFrame by the end of the ICS monitoring period to reflect
implementation of the ICS as a Prescribed Capital Requirement (PCR), criteria to assess
whether the Aggregation Method (AM) provides comparable outcomes to the ICS and
implementation of the Holistic Framework and qualitative aspects of ComFrame. The Covid-
19 pandemic provides added impetus to continue to drive the finalisation and implementation
of agreed reforms; in the case of the ICS monitoring, for example, the turbulence of the Covid-19 crisis has provided an opportunity to test the adequacy and robustness of this supervisory
tool in times of market stress.

The Strategic Plan sets out the integrated cycle of IAIS activities (monitoring, standard setting,
supervisory practices and implementation assessment), with a focus on certain key strategic
themes, many of which are areas of common interest with other standards setting bodies
(SSBs), but which also have a particular insurance sector perspective. At its Strategic Retreat
in September 2020, the IAIS ExCo confirmed that these strategic themes remain relevant
albeit with slightly different nuance in light of the pandemic. In fact, the Covid-19 pandemic is
serving as a catalyst that is adding impetus and accelerating many of the key strategic themes
identified in the Strategic Plan, including climate risk, technological innovation, cyber risk,
issues of conduct and culture, and sustainable development. There are also new themes that
have emerged from the Covid-19 crisis, such as the protection gap with respect to pandemic
risk, and operational risk and resilience issues related to insurance supervision under a “new
normal” of increased remote working, remote supervision and an accelerated digitalisation of
the insurance business model....

The 2021-2022 Public Roadmap has been published here.

IAIS

© IAIS - International Association of Insurance Supervisors