Analysis

• View from the Top: The CRO and risk team of the future

  04 April 2017

  The skills of an effective risk function have evolved over the past decades due to regulatory change and financial innovation. Looking forward, the role of risk once again sits on the brink of uncertain development driven not only by regulatory change but also the threat of digital disruption, as Tom Wilson explains

  

• Telling the solvency story

  30 March 2017

  The Solvency II solvency and financial condition report (SFCR) is causing consternation among insurers. How do participants balance the requirements of disclosure with confidentiality, or interpret this most loose fitting of regulatory diktats? With the first set of reports already published, the answer seems to be, not very happily. Sarfraz Thind reports

  

• Turning liability into opportunity

  28 March 2017

  There is growing evidence that exposure to phthalates has serious health impacts. Excluding phthalates from insurance contracts might be the natural response, but modelling the exposure could allow firms to see the risk as a business opportunity rather than a threat, as Praedicat chief executive Robert Reville tells Callum Tanner

  

• Yes, no, maybe: the PRA responds to industry's Solvency II reform agenda

  17 March 2017

  The UK regulator has made a point-by-point reply to the Association of British Insurers' agenda for Solvency II reforms and confirmed its priority to review the reporting requirements. Christopher Cundy reports

  

• Insurers split on recovery and resolution planning

  16 March 2017

  As the IAIS looks to develop a market-wide approach to systemic risk, Eiopa is developing rules that will require recovery and resolution plans from all insurers regardless of their size. This broader approach to systemic risk has split industry opinion and pitted large firms against small. Callum Tanner reports

  

• Deferred tax continues to complicate SII ratios

  09 March 2017

  Changing requirements from regulators over the loss absorbing-capacity of deferred tax means insurers' Solvency II capital will remain at the mercy of this complex, opaque and inconsistent factor

  

• Insurers still struggling with cyber risk management

  07 March 2017

  Last year's attack on DNS provider Dyn and a warning from the UK regulator on the aggregation of cyber risks have had a big influence on the way insurers are thinking about cyber risk modelling and management. Callum Tanner reports from the Advisen cyber risk conference in London

  

• The surprising inconsistency of risk appetite and risk tolerance statements

  02 March 2017

  Dave Ingram explains how Willis Re's study of insurers' risk appetite and risk tolerance statements revealed wide differences in the concepts they express

  

• PRA fights back with Solvency II defence

  23 February 2017

  Aviva and L&G chief executives have exaggerated the problems with Solvency II, according to PRA chief Sam Woods. Given more freedom outside the EU, the UK regulator is unlikely to make sweeping changes. Callum Tanner reports

  

• NAIC digs its claws into EU-US covered agreement

  17 February 2017

  A Congressional hearing has given opponents of the covered agreement the opportunity to argue for its renegotiation under the Trump administration. Christopher Cundy reports