European Commissioner Michel Barnier has put forward a draft Directive which postpones the Solvency II start date to 1st January 2016.

Statement by Commissioner Michel Barnier on the application date of Solvency II:

"The Commission today at my request put forward a draft Directive postponing the application date of the Solvency II Directive to 1 January 2016.

The Solvency II Directive, already adopted, creates a modern and risk-based prudential regime for insurance and reinsurance undertakings. National regulatory regimes for insurance, which vary greatly, are no longer able to guarantee an efficient internal market and prevent possible future crises.

A legislative proposal known as "Omnibus II", currently in trilogue discussions, makes significant modifications to Solvency II, in particular as regards insurance products with long-term guarantees (life insurance etc.). Based on an excellent report by EIOPA (the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority), a package of measures is under discussion to facilitate the transition to Solvency II and to mitigate the effects on the undertakings' own funds of artificial volatility of asset prices or discount rates.

The latest trilogues on Omnibus II are progressing well. An agreement between Council and European Parliament is within reach. But it will not be possible to publish the Omnibus II Directive in the Official Journal before 1 January 2014, the date when Solvency II is currently scheduled to start to apply. Moreover, before Omnibus II can be applied, a number of implementing measures are needed, and these cannot be finalised before the details of Omnibus II are known.

I have always wanted rapid implementation of Solvency II. But the currently planned date is simply no longer tenable. We have therefore proposed this postponement in order to avoid any legal uncertainty, especially for undertakings and supervisory authorities; we have done this only after obtaining assurance from the Council and the Parliament that they would not further change this new application date of Solvency II.

I now invite the co-legislators to reach agreement as soon as possible on Omnibus II and on this new Directive."

Paul Clarke, partner and global insurance regulatory leader, commented:

"The current Directive had a start date of January 2014, which became unrealistic given the slow progress on Omnibus 2. It was widely known that a 'Quick Fix 2' was required to move the date from 2014, and there was concern in the market that a safe date that avoids the need for a 'Quick Fix 3' would have been in the distant future.

"The fact that Commissioner Barnier has chosen January 2016 as the start date in this new Directive is encouraging and reflects confidence among the policy makers that a solution to the outstanding long term guarantee issue will be found this year ahead of Parliamentary elections in 2014.

"This Directive, together with the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority's ("EIOPA") guidelines to apply from 2014, will provide the market with greater confidence about final preparations for a full Solvency II implementation."

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