Nine months for finishing touches to Solvency II

Solvency II is still on track for a proposed framework directive in July next year, according to Charlie McCreevy, the EC’s internal market commissioner. However, finalising the project is no easy task and in this extract from Mr McCreevy’s address to a CEA conference recently, he explains the EC’s position on developing the lead supervisor concept, keeping the standard formula simple enough for small firms and clears up some of the misunderstandings that have been circulating about CEIOPS’ QIS 2.

Solvency II is a unique project both in its complexity and in the way it is being shaped. A complex project indeed. After the adoption of the Capital Requirements Directive, it was said that the development of a similar solvency regime for the insurance industry would be easy. We would just have to copy and paste. It became however clear very quickly that insurance is more sophisticated than banking.