Solvency II implementation update

27 February 2012

Julian Adams, FSA Director of Insurance, presented the challenges of implementing Solvency II. Mr Adams stressed that the ongoing uncertainty at European level as to what the timeline for implementation will be is a key concern for the insurance industry.

He also presented the following key points:

• the industry’s frustration with the ongoing lack of clarity is fully understandable.
• the timetable is very tight, particularly in the context of a legislative process which has been far from straightforward.
• There will be a key vote in the European Parliament at the end of March, and it would clearly not take much further slippage in this to put transposition in January 2013 at risk, but this would not necessarily affect the implementation date for firms in January 2014.
• The new regime will apply to firms from January 2014, and the FSA has developed a plan which reflects this. Clearly, it is possible that this will change in the future, but for the time being the FSA remains of the view that it must plan for a 2014 implementation.

Full speech

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