Amended Solvency II proposal published

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BRUSSELS – The new mergers and acquisitions directive that came into force in September 2007 has required the European Commission to publish an amended version of the original adopted proposal for the Solvency II Directive that was published on July 10, 2007.

The mergers and acquisitions directive had clear discrepancies between that text and the corresponding parts of the Solvency II Directive proposal. Moreover, a political agreement has been reached in December 2007 between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on the Rome I Regulation, which deals with the law applicable on contractual obligations. This affects the provisions on applicable law and conditions of direct insurance contracts in the Solvency II Directive proposal. In light of these developments, the European Commission has decided to adopt an amended proposal to the Solvency II Directive proposal adopted in July 2007.

The Solvency II proposal applies to all life and non-life insurance undertakings and reinsurance undertakings. But the current exclusion of small mutual undertakings has been extended to all small insurance undertakings regardless of their legal form. Other changes in the amended proposal concern: qualitative requirements and supervision; supervisory reporting and public disclosure; promotion of supervisory convergence; quantitative requirements; and group supervision.

Visit http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0119:FIN:EN:PDFto view the amended proposal.