Wielded fiercely all year by all stakeholders in need of an excuse for the delays in Solvency II's legislative passage (and hence the need for more budget), it appears to have variously pleased everyone and no-one at the same time. The key findings/recommendations are nicely summarised here.
Major players have since piped up with the following over the last week, none of which suggests the report's conclusions will be ole'd through the trilogue and parliamentary vote.
EU Institutions
- "We are confident that the results of the LTGA, combined with the EIOPA advice will provide the EU political institutions with a reliable basis for an informed decision on the long-term guarantee measures and a conclusion on the Omnibus II negotiations"
- "The Commission trusts that the Council and Parliament will use this very good report and its findings as a basis for an urgent agreement on Omnibus II and show pragmatism and willingness to compromise"
- "Speaking for the European Parliament, we are very confident that Eiopa's work and the subsequent analysis will provide for a successful restart of the negotiations, and as rapporteur, I am ready to start as quickly as possible, even before the summer break, to pre-launch trilogue negotiations. It is our firm intention to conclude the long-term package before the end of this year, so we can adopt Omnibus II in early spring 2014"
Industry representative and lobbying bodies
- Insurance Europe - "Insurance Europe’s preliminary review of EIOPA’s proposed improvements to the Solvency II regulatory regime shows that adaptations are needed to avoid unnecessarily damaging insurers’ ability to provide long-term guarantees and invest long-term"
- GCAE - "With the publication of the report, the EU is one step closer in the process to finalising the Solvency II dossier"
- UK's ABI - "The EIOPA report is a small step in the right direction. But there is still a long way to go before British pensioners can be confident of a reasonable deal on their annuities"
- Institute and Faculty of Actuaries - "Today’s proposals outlined by EIPOA (sic) would seem to address many of the important issues. However, the detail needs to be worked through and the effect in a variety of scenarios assessed, before the full implications of the proposals for companies and their customers can be understood"
Ratings agencies
- Fitch - EIOPA’s proposals “offer no prospect of an end to the long-running dispute between regulators and insurers over suitable capital levels for products with long-term investment guarantees"
Print Media
- Commercial Risk Europe - "...unlikely to resolve key issues stalling the implementation of Solvency II and may lead to yet further delays to the Directive"
Consultancies
- PWC - "many insurers may find the proposals onerous and will not welcome the continued uncertainty over the final rules. We anticipate there may be concerns about the capital required for certain types of assets backing annuities in particular; and the effectiveness of measures designed to address short-term asset volatility"
- KPMG - "...it is likely that certain European countries will look very unfavourably at the EIOPA proposals."
I have emboldened the quote from Burkhard Balz above which suggests that the Omnibus II vote is going to move again. The rationale for that is two-fold; the prospective Plenary date (which was down as October 2013) appears to have suspiciously disappeared from the EU Parliament's Omnibus II procedure file altogether, while Mr. Balz clearly states early 2014 is targeted 'adoption date' while 'speaking on behalf of the Parliament'!
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