The European Parliament’s vote on Omnibus 2, due to take place in November, has now been pushed back to March 2013. This latest delay effectively renders it impossible to meet the 1st January 2014 deadline.
Janine Hawes, insurance director at KPMG, comments “Few industry participants will be surprised with this news. It is safe to say that the industry, as a whole, had all but given up on 2014 as a viable implementation option in any case.
No reason has been given for the delay in the plenary vote; however it is likely to be to accommodate the forthcoming impact study to assess the effect of the various proposals on the long-term guarantee package. This will take place later this year and the timing of this vote suggests that the trilogue process will now largely be stalled until the results of this study are known. Unfortunately, despite calls for a clear statement on timeline, including most recently by Gabriel Bernardino, chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), no such announcement has been made.
The challenge now is how quickly the results of the impact study can be assessed and the speed with which an agreed solution can be reached in the trilogue process when it resumes. The new indicative date for the European Parliament’s plenary vote may need to be moved back further to accommodate this.
The dates for transposition and implementation of Solvency II will also need to be amended again, with a second short "quick fix" directive required. The question that remains is whether this will be a delay of one or two years.
We therefore repeat our previous pleas for the indicative timeline to be published, so that the entire insurance industry has clarity on when the regime will come into force so the remainder of the process can be managed.”
|
