Final date for Solvency II reached

Michel Barnier, the EU’s internal markets commissioner has indicated that the planned start date for Solvency II has been moved to January 1, 2016.

Barnier said that the planned January 1, 2014 start date was untenable and that as such the regime will be delayed. He said in a statement that the legislative proposal known as Omnibus II, which will make significant modifications to Solvency II, in particular as regards insurance products with long-term guarantees, will not be ready to be published before January 1, 2014, the date Solvency II is currently scheduled to start to apply.

“The latest trilogues on Omnibus II are progressing well,” Barnier said in the statement. “An agreement between Council and European Parliament is within reach. But it will not be possible to publish the Omnibus II Directive in the Official Journal before 1 January 2014, the date when Solvency II is currently scheduled to start to apply. Moreover, before Omnibus II can be applied, a number of implementing measures are needed, and these cannot be finalised before the details of Omnibus II are known.”

“I have always wanted rapid implementation of Solvency II. But the currently planned date is simply no longer tenable. We have therefore proposed this postponement in order to avoid any legal uncertainty, especially for undertakings and supervisory authorities; we have done this only after obtaining assurance from the Council and the Parliament that they would not further change this new application date of Solvency II.”