The green light for the Omnibus II directive, which is the legislation underpinning Solvency II, paves the way for the new capital requirements for insurers across the EU to be introduced formally in January 2016.
European commissioner for internal market and services Michel Barnier said:"The European Parliament has just taken a very important step towards the introduction of a modern and risk-based solvency regime for the insurance industry in Europe as of 1 January 2016, making it both safer and more competitive. This long-awaited and vital reform will finally become a reality."
The Actuarial Association of Europe also welcomed this latest stage in the implementation process as “another important milestone” though it highlighted that much work is still to be done on finalising the important details.
Malcolm Campbell, chairperson of the Actuarial Association of Europe, said: “This is an important step in the Solvency II project, and we can now focus on how we best contribute to ensure that Solvency II can be implemented by 2016. The AAE has always supported the introduction and contributed to the development of a new risk-based solvency regime for the insurance industry and will continue to do so”.
In October last year the European Commission made an application to delay the directive by two years.
