“The solvency reform is long overdue”, Commissioner McCreevy said at the CEA Conference in Brussels. “If we want to be ready by 2012, we must deliver now”, he reiterated. “If we make substantial amendments to the Proposal, we will lose some of the expected benefits of the measures.”
The Commissioner is optimistic that some of the open issues, in particular the provisions on group supervision and the group support regime, can be solved in time, and reminded that CEIOPS is already working on its advice on groups, which should be delivered to the Commission by May 2008.
“The group supervision and the group support regime are key aspects of Solvency II”, McCreevy said. However, “If the innovative new proposals are compromised, we are likely to regret it in the future”, he added.
Of particular importance to the Commission is the treatment of groups and the application of the proportionality principle, McCreevy underlined. He expects that agreement in Council and Parliament will take place in the autumn, well before the final results of QIS 4 ae available. “This should not be a problem”, he noted, adding that QIS 4 is not fundamentally different from QIS 3.
“The lack of consistency between the current EU insurance regime and the regulation of other sectors is not beneficial”, he noted. “We should remember that there are fundamental differences between banking and insurance”, he said and outlined that Solvency II is not a ‘blue print for banking’. However, the Commissioner made clear that the Commission will have a close look at the reward structures for both sectors. “I hope that the broad principles the investment bankers have in mind will be ones that the insurance sector will consider too”, he said.
Full speech
See also: CEA press release
© Graham Bishop
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