EIOPA's Bernadino on a "clear timeline" for Solvency II

Picked up on by a number of outlets (here, here and here), Sr Bernadino had some choice words to exchange with the folks at Goethe University (available here) regarding a desire to avoid further Solvency II timeline slippage, citing his earlier "hurry up" letter to Mr Barnier.

From a forthcoming EIOPA output perspective, the paper on Colleges of Supervisors action plans for 2012 should be an interesting read, however, the indeterminate delay in Parliament clearly leaves them stymied regarding the big public consultations that practitioners are waiting for.

EIOPA 1st Annual Conference - Anything of note?

EIOPA had their first annual conference today in Frankfurt (happy birthday!). Looks very heavy on politicos as you might expect, and there has been a few drips of information from it, in particular;

• Sr Bernadino's comments that insurers should not "pretend to play God" by implementing onerous counter-cyclical tools in addition to the facilities already in play to avoid pro-cyclicality
• Mr Barnier's introductory speech where the delay to 2014 is seen as "a plus point, enabling insurers, national supervisors and EIOPA to prepare better"- doubtless all you project managers looking at an additional year of expense will rest easy at that! He also mentions that equivalence is not looking to force countries to adopt a regime identical to Solvency II, as well as emphasising the party line on Group supervision in the context of IAIS ICPs and the ongoing SIFI debate.
• Sr Bernadino's keynote speech - May 2012 scheduled for public consultation on technical standards, which he stresses does not pre-empt the trialogues and Rapporteur Balz's Omnibus II paper going through EU parliament
• Elliot Varnell has had a busy day tweeting, so serve yourself at his feed. Interesting to see that Karel van Hulle thinks there isn't enough cross-border sales going on - having worked in that area, a good helping hand might be to remove local language requirements!

Solvency II timeline changing - 2014 anyone?

Not sure who the moles are in either London or Brussels, but there appears to be some water-testing ongoing about a soft launch of Solvency II over the weekend, with the FT reporting that "people familiar to the process" have it chalked down for implementation in 2013, but not active until 2014.

I can't quite work out if there is some confusion over transitional measures already in Omnibus II just being regurgitated, or if they have a genuine sniff of a shift in timeline here.

They interestingly note that the French had previously asked for a 2013 launch, with a year's grace on Pillar 1, and that this had made it on to the table at the Commission.

[Apologies in advance if you cannot link through, some of these are subscription/limited access]

Barnier fights back - response to CEA/CRO Forum

FT are reporting to have seen the response of Michel Barnier to the lobbying from, amongst others, the CEA and CRO Forum on Level 2 implementing measures. They quote the following;

• Statements that calibrations are too high "have not been confirmed by evidence"
• Commission is taking sustainable provision of long-term guarantee products "very seriously"
• "The industry's position on some of the other issues raised...is not shared by those who will be making the final decisions"

The last quote is obviously quite an aggressive reposte to the list of gripes supplied by the lobbyists in April, and confirms that the bluntness of Bernardino's views from his interview with InsuranceERM last month is very much the party line in the corridors of power.

I will save the gap analysis between the lobbyists and the Commission until after they publish this letter in full!