With just 9 months to go until the Insurance Act 2015 comes into force, how ready is the market? A recent survey carried out by Airmic among its members has revealed that: Only 53% of respondents believed they were prepared for the introduction of the Act; and 61% of respondents had not yet mapped out … Read more

Insurers and reinsurers operating in European markets are facing change on an unprecedented scale. The main reason for this is Solvency II. Solvency II creates, for the first time, a fully harmonised regime for the prudential regulation of insurance businesses in Europe. It is designed to encourage the development of a properly integrated insurance market … Read more

The PRA is in the course of deciding what approvals, waivers and modifications it should grant to firms as part of the process of bringing the Solvency II regime into force. These cover internal models, the matching adjustment and a variety of other issues. Where a firm applies for an approval, waiver or modification and the PRA … Read more

The Prudential Regulation Authority is proposing to extend its rules about pre-issuance notification of capital (own funds) instruments. The proposed rules will apply to insurers and banks, but our briefing focuses on insurers. We suggest that the PRA proposals are ill-considered and in some respects may be open to legal challenge. We also criticise the … Read more

Insurers successfully avoided a policy on the grounds of inadvertent non-disclosure. The High Court commented on the different outcome that would have been available under the Insurance Act 2015 which comes in to force in August 2016, remarking that the stringent remedy of avoidance under the present law remains a "blot on English insurance law".  Read more

Now may be the time to review your cyber risk mitigation strategy and give serious consideration to whether the financial cost of cyber attacks could be transferred to insurers at a fair price. Cyber security is amongst the leading risks for organisations around the globe. In the last few years most organisations have suffered cyber … Read more

The revised text of the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) was published in July, following agreement by the EU institutions under the “trilogue” process.  The IDD will replace the current Insurance Mediation Directive (IMD), which lays down the regulatory framework for the distribution of insurance products within and across Member States. Agreement of the latest text … Read more

In November 2014, the PRA and the FCA proposed wide-ranging reforms of the Approved Persons Regime (APR) for insurers and reinsurers. The PRA will introduce a Senior Insurance Managers Regime (SIMR), in line with its commitment to extend to insurers changes being made for banks. Outrage expressed about a lack of individual accountability has been … Read more