The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published an opinion on interim measures regarding Solvency II yesterday.
Insurance Europe welcomes EIOPA's endeavours to avoid piecemeal implementation of Solvency II by national regulators.
A consistent approach to EU regulation is essential, particularly for insurance groups that operate cross-border.
However, Insurance Europe warns that it will be challenging both legally and technically to phase-in implementation of the new regulatory regime. It would therefore wish to see more details of EIOPA's phase-in proposals in order to be able to assess whether they are workable for Europe's insurers.
It is important to use the time until the finalisation of the impact assessment on long-term guarantee measures to draw some lessons from the Solvency II process to date. What must be avoided are overly complex measures in e.g. the internal model pre-application process or pressing forward with burdensome reporting requirements ahead of the formal introduction of Solvency II.
What the insurance industry wishes to see is a firm and achievable timetable for the definitive implementation of Solvency II. That timetable must be realistic in terms of the time needed to find workable solutions to the outstanding issues, the legislative approval process and the preparation time required by companies.