ABIR Presents At Bermuda Insurance Market
The benefits to the Bermuda international [re]insurance market of awaited equivalency with the European Union Solvency II Directive on insurance regulation, marked the opening comments on day two of the Bermuda Insurance Market Conference.
Leila Madeiros, Senior Vice President, Deputy Director and Corporate Secretary for the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers [ABIR] spoke for about an hour on Bermuda’s longstanding efforts to successfully navigate international insurance regulatory and standard-setting developments.
“Full Solvency II equivalency for Bermuda’s commercial insurance market will mean that our jurisdiction will be recognized by Europe for its regulatory approach and capacity to effectively supervise the many international [re]insurance groups based in Bermuda,” Ms. Madeiros commented.
Anticipated European equivalency comes after Bermuda achieved US qualified jurisdiction status, which promotes equal access to US markets. Maintaining the global viability of the jurisdiction will also mean staying on top of efforts by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors [IAIS] to develop international standards in capital requirements both for globally systemic important insurers [GSIIs] and internationally active insurance groups [IAIGs]. Only last week the IAIS announced that it had completed its initial work of the Higher Loss Absorbency [HLA] requirement for GSIIs which has also been endorsed by the Financial Stability Board.
Mrs. Madeiros continued “What can we expect next on the regulatory environment? The IAIS will now work to complete its development of ComFrame; a comprehensive, group wide supervisory and regulatory framework for IAIGs including an insurance capital standard.”
As explained, ABIR believes that successful and effective group wide supervision can be achieved through supervisory colleges consisting of the relevant regulators from jurisdictions where our member companies are licensed.
This exchange of views and regulatory information operating in a framework of regulators across borders enhances trust, improves the quality of information exchanged and increases the effectiveness of regulatory review and decisions.
Further, in light of the comprehensive regulatory work the Bermuda Monetary Authority [BMA] has completed in the last five years with respect to its commercial market that it supervises, the already well-established Bermuda group capital standard should be found as being comparable to an international capital standard.
