Tag: Solvency II

HMT Review of Solvency II: Call for Evidence—IFoA Response

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.actuaries.org.uk/system/files/field/document/HMT_SII_v7.pdf

Excerpt:

The current design of the SII risk margin is too interest-rate sensitive and too high, particularly in the current low-interest rate environment. We believe reform, and an overall reduction, in the risk margin is desirable and can be done whilst keeping an appropriate balance between policyholder protection and cost.


The Matching Adjustment (MA) is vitally important to UK insurers, UK pension schemes and individuals. Without it, annuity prices would increase, and it would simply not be affordable for many pension schemes to buy-out with an insurance company. The IFoA fully supports the continued inclusion of the MA; the MA has successfully helped reduced
procyclical investment behaviour, such as during the stressed conditions in early 2020. However, we believe that the MA framework needs to incorporate more pragmatic flexibility, without a lowering of regulatory standards.


We favour incentivisation of ‘green’ investment rather than overly penal disincentives for ‘brown’ asset classes, noting that sectors considered ‘brown’ must also be part of the solution to the challenges of climate change.

Author(s): Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Publication Date: 19 February 2021

Publication Site: Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Solvency II Review: Call for Evidence

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/solvency-ii-review-call-for-evidence

Excerpt:

Solvency II is the regime that governs the prudential regulation of insurance firms in the UK. This call for evidence is the first stage of the review of Solvency II.

The review is underpinned by three objectives:

to spur a vibrant, innovative, and internationally competitive insurance sector

to protect policyholders and ensure the safety and soundness of firms

to support insurance firms to provide long-term capital to support growth, including investment in infrastructure, venture capital and growth equity, and other long-term productive assets, as well as investment consistent with the government’s climate change objectives.

The government seeks views on how to tailor the prudential regulatory regime to support the unique features of the insurance sector and regulatory approach in the UK.

Author(s): Her Majesty’s Treasury

Date Accessed: 24 February 2021

Publication Site: Gov.UK

Matching adjustment becomes a battleground in UK’s Solvency II consultation

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.insuranceerm.com/analysis/matching-adjustment-becomes-a-battleground-in-uks-solvency-ii-consultation.html

Excerpt:

Solvency II sets strict requirements over what kinds of liabilities and assets are eligible for the MA [matching adjustment], and the governance of them. In the UK’s Solvency II consultation, respondents have argued a looser regime would be good for insurers – and good for the country.

…..

Many of these suggestions have been previously floated in industry circles, some since even before Solvency II came into effect in 2016. But there are a growing number of experts calling for a much more dramatic rethink of the MA – and whether it should even exist.

Dean Buckner, a former regulator at the Bank of England who worked on the MA, and Kevin Dowd, professor of finance and economics at Durham University, have been at the forefront of arguing the MA creates “fake capital” and puts annuity payments at risk.

In their submission to the consultation, they write: “The MA allows firms to recognise some anticipated risky future profits as if they were certain, thereby allowing them to be distributed before being realised. If the risky future profits are not realised – bear in mind that they are called ‘risky’ for a reason – then the capital created by MA will vanish, and policyholders will be at risk.”

Author(s): Christopher Cundy

Publication Date: 23 February 2021

Publication Site: Insurance ERM