For European insurers and U.S. insurers operating in the UK that also have to comply, Solvency II remains a question as the compliance deadline is looming, particularly as the final regulations have still not been clarified. This challenges preparation for Jan. 1, 2014, implementation, but insurers continue to make progress toward compliance with the risk and capital reporting regulation, and where possible, they have already put systems and processes in place, according to Deloitte's "Solvency II Survey 2012."
According to the survey—conducted by the Economist Intelliegence Group—of 60 insurers with UK operations, when it comes to implementation, nearly two-thirds of respondents (63 percent) are somewhat or very confident their business processes and tools will be adequate to meet the working-day timetable once Solvency II is introduced.
But it's not cheap. "Building the Solvency II infrastructure is a significant investment with expensive new systems being deployed to calculate insurance liabilities and to report asset and liability data to the regulators and the market," says Francesco Nagari, global IFRS insurance lead partner at Deloitte. "Making it work on day one and ensuring it has the necessary flexibility to work for other future requirements is an imperative."
