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On 30 August 2012, the European Parliament rescheduled the plenary vote of the Omnibus II Directive from 22 October 2012 to 20 November 2012. There will now be a further five-month delay.
The Financial Services Authority also acknowledged the delay but highlighted that no new timetable has been confirmed. The current timetable is set for transposition by 30 November 2013, and 1 January 2014 is still the Europe-wide implementation date, the FSA said.
Tim Scott, a consultant in CMS Cameron McKenna’s financial services and products team, warned that the earliest possible date for Solvency II implementation now appears to be January 2015. “The delay, apparently caused by political disagreement over the matching adjustment, may be good news for some firms, but for those insurers seeking internal model approval, the costs of keeping their ICAS and Solvency II models running in tandem could be high. The current level of uncertainty cannot persist much longer.
“Firms, their national supervisors and EIOPA will not tolerate it and the European Commission and Parliament will lose all credibility in this field. A final, realistic timetable needs to be set before the end of this year and it must be complied with, come what may.”