FSA, SOLPRU and Costs

Just when you thought it had gone quiet, the FSA throw out a 200 pager covering the regulator's transposition to Solvency II!

Some important pieces in this on;

Cost

• FSA has budgeted £110m over the 5 years 2008-2013 for Solvency II implementation (which supports their statement back at a June FSA management meeting where they commented that contingency would need to be enacted (p3) if go-live date was extended past 2013). They had said in their business plan for this year that the estimated implementation cost would be £100m-£150m, so they are on the light side of that estimate. 
• Frighteningly, they are budgeting for another £178m of spend between 2014 and 2016 (on nursing internal models through assessments and  improving IT) before reverting to current equivalent levels - for those people who got a special levy refund this year, you might want to cancel the trip to Vegas!
• Estimating cost to the industry (of around 550-600 undertakings) of £1.9bn, with this estimate creeping up due to extra contractor and IT cost.

At 200 pages, some of the detail can wait, but those 2014-16 FSA costs (which will be the PRA by then I guess) are an eye opener, particularly for anyone in IMAP who will (possibly?) be coughing up a special levy for the model assessment-related element.