Guy Carpenter today published an assessment of the development of solvency requirements and regulatory initiatives that are impacting (re)insurers in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. According to the report, these developments are driven by four key motivators, including the need to improve resiliency post-catastrophic loss; to increase oversight in a post-Great Recession world; to follow best practices from the banking and international insurance sectors; and finally, to satisfy domestic political pressures.

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James Wrynn, Mark Shumway, Managing Directors and Graham Jones, Andrew Cox and Markus Mueller, Senior Vice Presidents 

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In the wake of the global financial crisis in 2008, significant regulatory change aimed at preventing/mitigating future crises was implemented. While the U.S. insurance regulatory framework did remarkably well in the protection of insurance consumers and companies in the United States during the financial crisis, it was, and will be affected by these reforms. Today, the results are having a profound impact on companies’ balance sheets and risk management practices. Although primarily aimed at larger, global insurers, the changes are so extensive that they may impact medium and small insurers to some extent. The question that most (re)insurers are asking today is how can they cope with the myriad regulatory, legislative and ratings changes and continue to maximize opportunities and maintain profitable growth. 

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Guy Carpenter today published a new report analyzing the changing regulatory landscape and the highly anticipated implementation of Solvency II. 

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David Flandro, Global Head of Business Intelligence, Claude Lefebvre, Head of GC Analytics EMEA Region, Mark Shumway, Senior Vice President
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Solvency II will profoundly impact the reinsurance market, though perhaps not exactly in the ways reinsurers or regulators have anticipated. This impact will not be limited to European reinsurance markets, but will be felt globally. Advances in disclosure and overall market strength will come with costs, including a more volatile pricing environment.

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David Flandro, Global Head of Business Intelligence, Claude Lefebvre, Head of GC Analytics EMEA Region, Mark Shumway, Senior Vice President
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Assessing Counterparty Default Risk

Counterparty default risk is one of the core components of the Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR). This module has undergone substantial change over the several quantitative impact studies (QIS) as the supervisors attempted to find an appropriate measure of the risk. In the QIS 5 final report, EIOPA noted that this module received the most criticism for the “overly complex approach” relative to the materiality of counterparty default risk within the overall risk-based capital requirement (3). We expect to see additional changes that will simplify the calculation of risk.

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David Flandro, Global Head of Business Intelligence, Claude Lefebvre, Head of GC Analytics EMEA Region, Mark Shumway, Senior Vice President
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Previous reports in our Succeeding Under Solvency II series focused on the capital requirements associated with Pillar I, corporate governance (Pillar II) and disclosure (Pillar III). In this briefing, the third in the series, we concentrate on special considerations for reinsurance and counterparty risk.

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