A spokesman for the commissioner said that he had called for an impact assessment of the rules by March 2013, but that it was too early to say whether the January 2014 start date would have to be put back.
A delay would prolong uncertainty over the industry's future capital requirements, though leading European insurers said it would be better to postpone the new rules than push through measures that might then have to be amended.
Solvency II, 10 years in the making and designed to force insurers to hold capital reserves in strict proportion to the risks they underwrite, has been held up by disagreements over how the cash buffer for long-term life insurance contracts should be calculated.
European governments, keen to avoid onerous requirements that could make pensions more expensive, favour different calculation methods depending on their respective industries' business models, leading to deadlock in talks over the final draft of Solvency II.
"We welcome the postponement as it allows (us) to resolve still open questions and sufficiently test the effects of any Solvency II rules prior to finalising the directive", Allianz, Europe's biggest insurer, said in a statement. "Sound principles and clarity must prevail over readiness."
Postponing Solvency II would be politically embarrassing for the Commission, which had intended the rules to serve as a global benchmark for other countries.
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