regulation

The Canadian insurance regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), is investigating the use of offshore reinsurance as it seeks to ensure that insurance companies are able to meet their obligations to policyholders if they encounter stress.

In current form, the U.S. Treasury Internal Revenue Service’s proposed rules for Passive Foreign Investment Companies (PFICs) could impact a number of alternative risk, reinsurance and ILS structures and activities.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued a letter providing no-action relief to insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond issuers seeking exemption from being treated as a commodity pool operator.

The Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney has spoken out on capital inflows into reinsurance, saying that a ‘soft cycle’ in the financial markets (referring to interest rates) is driving capital into reinsurance and causing a soft cycle there.

Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney warned that insurers need to be accountable for their actions today and that the Bank of England is watchful of any risks from moves such as insurers or reinsurers adopting more aggressive investment strategies.

The New York Department of Financial Services has proposed stronger oversight and the need for increased transparency for certain acquisitions of life insurance (or reinsurance) businesses, particularly where the acquirer is an investor, such as a private equity firm.

Back in October we wrote about an issue that had arisen which could affect issuers of catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities due to changing regulation in U.S. financial markets. Under the Dodd-Frank Act the definition of a ‘commodity pool’ was being expanded to include any entity which operates to trade in swaps. At the same […]

Once again the goal posts move in Solvency II world. Just over a week ago we wrote that it was unlikely we’d see implentation of Solvency II before 2015. Now, comments from Carlos Montalvo, Executive Director of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) at an event held during the Baden Baden reinsurance meetings […]

Once again the changing regulatory environment under Dodd-Frank brings some uncertainty to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market. The latest stems from the Dodd-Frank Act’s expansion of the definition of a ‘commodity pool’ which can now be read to include any entity which operates to trade in swaps. At the same time the definition of a […]

A few weeks ago we wrote that the implementation of the Solvency II regulatory rules would be delayed after a new study was called for to look into and better understand the impact of Solvency II on insurers and reinsurers. At that time we had no idea whether the delay would be lengthy but observers […]