The Solvency II preparation finish line is close

Solvency II - the European Union prudential capital regulation - will come in to effect in January 2016 after more than a decade of preparation. For many European insurers it means they are reaching the end of the long road of deep preparation but others have already turned their preoccupations in other directions. For instance the Solvency II regulation came in to effect already this year in Denmark and their level of preparation allowed Danish insurers to adapt to the new regulation. But let's recall what Solvency II is and why it is an important regulation for the European insurance industry. Solvency II is the set of regulatory requirements for insurance firms that operate in the European Union. The rationale is to facilitate the development of a single insurance market in Europe while securing an adequate level of consumer protection. It is based on three pillars:

• The first pillar defines capital requirements. It quantifies the minimum capital requirement (MCR) and the solvency capital requirement (SCR).
• The second pillar provides qualitative requirements in terms of supervision and review. Indeed, the European Commission wants to emphasize the need for insurance companies to implement efficient risk management systems.
• The third pillar introduces the market discipline concept. Insurance companies have to promote transparency and support risk-based supervision through market mechanisms.

What makes Solvency II a comprehensive regulation is the fact it includes all types of risks and is not restricted to purely insurance risk. With this it better captures the reality of what an insurer's risk profile is. Key elements of this approach is of course the diversification effect and this is why we see consolidation among small insurance players who lack diversification in their business (notably small mutuals in France for instance). Going forward we expect other geographies to follow the same principles and we think it is important that multinational companies learn from their European preparation. Of course Celent and Oliver Wyman have been working on Solvency II in the recent past. We have also published research providing our views and opinions on this topic. A recent report has been published by Oliver Wyman in collaboration with Morgan Stanley looking more particularly at various consequences and notably on cash for insurers. If you are interested to know more here is an abstract: European Insurance: Generating Cash in a Volatile Solvency II World. For the insurance companies that are interested to better understand the vendor landscape we have published a report profiling vendors with a Solvency II offering a few years ago: Solvency II IT Vendor Spectrum: 2012 Edition.