Insurers must comply with Solvency II

General insurers are in danger of ignoring a key facet of Solvency II compliance: the requirement of an actuarial function.

OAC Actuaries and Consultants, the independent actuarial and financial services consultancy, has warned that some firms have been slow to put provisions in place and with just 18 months until the deadline, concerns are growing.

A central tenet of the new regime is that general insurance firms will be required to have an actuarial function to help them assess their financial resources and solvency capital requirements as well as help with the effective implementation of a risk management system.

Christopher Critchlow, consultant actuary at OAC, said: “Solvency II represents a step change for insurers and having an actuarial function in place is absolutely central to that process. Until now the general insurance industry has adopted a more informal and intuitive process in the assessment of their actuarial liabilities but with the Solvency II requirements imminent that is set to change.

“Insurers obviously have the option to appoint ‘in house’ actuarial resource or to outsource it. However, the message needs to be that despite delays in the past two years we have just over 18 months before the rules come into force. Some aspects of the regulations remain unclear and the sooner insurers confront any doubts head on the better as any points that are ignored could prove costly in the long-run.”