FSA Business Plan for 2012/13 - probably a quiet year...

The FSA fired out their business plan for next year today. Of interest for the insurers amongst us is p30;

• We will extend our work with the largest firms to deepen our assessments of insurers’ business models and their resilience under a range of conditions.We will maintain our focus on understanding the financial impacts of stressed market conditions, including through use of standardised stress testing and reverse stress testing.
• As part of our supervisory work on Solvency II, we will continue our assessment of firms’ progress towards meeting the new standards, including through detailed reviews of insurers’ risk management arrangements and proposed internal models

Specifically on the Solvency II front (p32)

Continue to work with the Treasury, the European Commission and EIOPA on the negotiation of Omnibus II, Level 2 and Level 3 of the Solvency II directive;
Continue to work with the insurance industry to keep firms up to date with policy developments so they can effectively prepare for implementation;
Conduct our consultations to transpose Solvency II into UK rules and a new draft Handbook by 1 January 2013;
Develop and deliver the design and build of the processes required for implementation on 1 January 2014 and beyond, where policy developments allow us to do this;
Work with firms on the implications of the change from a paper based to an electronic reporting process;

Deliver the required training and support internally and externally.
Provide UK-specific regulatory reporting templates, with supporting systems and materials for firms and FSA staff to complement the EU-wide material; and

Finally, on page 51

• We will continue to reform our conduct regulations, where necessary, to implement the requirements of the Solvency II Directive while maintaining appropriate levels of consumer protection. The bulk of this work is expected to be in relation to our rules on permitted links (COBS 21) and on with-profits (COBS 20), with the revised rules intended to be included in the Handbook at the start of 2013. Some aspects are dependent on the completion of work currently being carried out by EIOPA.

Pretty quiet year ahead then all in all...