Insurers look forward to Solvency II

Europe

Forty nine percent of European insurers already have formal programmes in place to transform their risk and capital management systems in line with the European Union’s Solvency II directive, according to the findings by management consultants Accenture. A further 25% of insurers have firm plans to put such programmes in place. Despite the cost involved, the survey suggests that insurers were overwhelmingly positive about the new regime to be implemented around 2010. Nearly 78% of European insurers believe that Solvency II will improve transparency and controls in managing risk and capital, and more than 62% anticipate improvements in their organizations’ allocation of regulatory capital, which is the capital reserves that regulators require be set aside with no exposure to market risks.