Solvency II ~ The IUA's official guide to the new framework for prudential regulation in the EU

1 Introduction

The aim of this website is to summarise the information and issues for non life insurers arising from the introduction of a new EU wide solvency regime.

Great attention is being paid by insurers and reinsurers to the new Solvency regime proposed by the EU. The industry has been given its biggest opportunity for decades to assist in the development of the new regime and create a truly competitive European wide market where each organisation can demonstrate its capital strength as well as give a fair account of its past activities. It is proposed that Solvency II will be a risk based economic framework which gives insurers an incentive to measure and monitor their risks and have their capital requirements based on this risk assessment. The aim of this site is to explain how the regime may work and when it is likely to happen.

The site will take you through The Background to Solvency II and describes all the relevant directives since the 1970s. The Main Changes sets out the proposed elements of the solvency capital regime including the MCR, SCR and IRCA. Who Is Doing What? gives more detail of the organisations involved in developing the new regime. Topical Issues summarises the main talking points and where further consultation is likely to take place. Timetable sets out the likely milestones leading up to implementation and the Glossary is available to check basic definitions.

Click here for a diagram which shows you the main institutions that are involved in the Solvency II project and provides you with a quick link to their web sites. It should be a useful shortcut for those returning to this site to look up specific issues relevant to those organisations.