EIOPA, Europe’s new supervisory authority for the insurance sector, has published the findings of the fifth Quantitative Impact Study on the implementation of Solvency II (QIS 5). This report contains important indicators of the potential impact of Solvency II on the European insurance industry and also discusses qualitative findings arising from the conduct of the study. The Financial Market Authority (FMA) has now published the key findings from QIS 5 on its website, in a comparison of results for the entire EEA and Austria.
At EEA level, two thirds of insurance undertakings that will be affected by the Solvency II directive took part in the study, while the participation level in Austria was 70%. Austria’s average solvency ratio under QIS 5 (ratio of equity capital to the solvency capital requirement) of 250% is significantly higher than the European average of 165%. While the average ratio in the EEA has almost halved in comparison with the current Solvency I regime, in Austria the fall has been much less marked, with a drop of just ten percentage points. Moreover, the absolute equity capital excess in the Austrian market is now more than 80% higher under Solvency II than under the previous regime.
Starting on 1 January 2013, Solvency II will not merely entail new quantitative requirements. For this reason, in the coming months increased attention will need to be paid by the Austrian insurance sector to fulfilling the higher qualitative requirements of the new supervisory regime. This will be particularly true in the areas of governance, risk management, internal processes and consistency of data and methods. The FMA will publish a more detailed analysis of the findings for the Austrian market this May, in a national report on the results of the study.
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (Spokesperson)
Tel: +43 (0)1 24959 5106
Mobile: +43 (0)676 882 49 516