22 November 2012EMEA analysis

A timely Solvency II requires political will


The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) insists that political buy-in from the EU is essential for the creation of a credible timetable for Solvency II.

Gabriel Bernardino, chairman of EIOPA, stated at a press conference in Frankfurt on 21 November, that political will was needed for a credible timetable, but that interim measures aimed at implementing key features of Solvency II were possible. Among these would necessarily need to be: “a regime that preserves the risk-based economic approach on the valuation and assessment of risk and that adequately captures the characteristics of certain long-term liabilities with sufficiently predictable matchable cash-flows.”

Adding to Bernardino’s comments, Carlos Montalvo, executive director of EIOPA, said that the regulator was now moving “from regulation to supervision”, as the Authority ramps up its efforts to implement Solvency II. “We are giving a very high priority to EIOPA supervisory tasks and their convergence, including a push from EIOPA’s side towards a consistent approach to Solvency II in selected areas that can be implemented at an earlier stage,” said Montalvo. “That is why among our deliverables for the next year we target work on a supervisory handbook, an internal models support expert unit and an ambitious enhancement of the role and scope of EIOPA within colleges of supervisors.”