Solvency II News: Plenary vote on Omnibus II rescheduled for July

[update 7.3.2012 11.41 London] The plenary vote on Omnibus II in the European Parliament has been rescheduled for 2 July 2012. The vote was due to take place in April, however the change in the date was anticipated to allow enough time for the trialogues – negotiations between the Parliament, the Commission and the Council of Ministers – to take place. Therefore it is not anticipated that there will be any material change to the current implementation timetable of 2013/14. Sources in the Parliament said they were confident the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) vote will go ahead as planned on 21 March and dates have already been scheduled internally to begin the trialogues. Sharon Bowles MEP, Chair, ECON Committee, confirmed that the new date for the vote in the plenary is in line with current implementation timetable and does not constitute a material change to the work plan. “In the Parliament, we will work hard to ensure that once the final text has been voted on by the Committee, we move straight into trialogue in order to stick to the original implementation date for Solvency II,” she told Solvency II Wire. “The trialogues will begin straight away in early April,” Ms Bowles added. Burkhard Balz MEP, Rapporteur Omnibus II, said, “In the European Parliament we so far agreed to leave the implementation date and application date of Solvency II to the trialogue negotiations. The implementing measures to Solvency II will be officially proposed by the European Commission after the Omnibus II Directive has been published in the Official Journal. There is going to be a consent procedure within the European Parliament and Council of up to three months (extension of further three months possible).” More information on the level 2 implementing measures can be found on the Lloyd’s website: Lloyd’s implementing measures. EIOPA said it was not anticipating the plenary date to change the implementation time table. “The work plans of EIOPA hasn’t changed,” a spokesperson said. “We are working under the assumption that Solvency II will see full implementation on 1 January 2014. At the same time we are going to closely monitor all the respective developments in the European Parliament.” Reactions from regulators in member states confirm the rescheduling has come as no surprise and that they all remain committed to the exiting implementation timeline. The FSA confirmed the new date will not change its work plan. “Our current assumptions and the UK implementation timetable outlined last Monday [at the industry briefing] continue to stand,” a spokesperson said. “Final certainty for the timetable will be given in the Omnibus II Directive later this year. We will continue to review our assumptions as the text develops over the coming months and, as we did last year when bifurcation became a possibility, we will only revise them if and when we have a degree of certainty that the timetable will change.” ACP, the French regulator: “The reschedule of the EP plenary vote was expected since it was announced that the ECON vote would take place at the end of March and since some time is necessary for the trilogue to take place. Therefore, ACP considers that this new announcement should not affect the timeline for Solvency II implementation in France. ACP, like other national supervisory authorities and like EIOPA, is committed to ensuring the full implementation of Solvency II as of January 1, 2014. Insurance undertakings and groups should continue their preparation work, and increase it where necessary, in order to be ready for that date. Stability and clarity in the timeline for adoption of Omnibus 2 and the level 2 text is essential in order to ensure that this preparation can be done in an orderly way.” Czech National Bank: “The Czech National Bank is continuously working in close cooperation with the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic in order to amend our national legislation as well as our internal methodology in advance of the expected full implementation on 1 January 2014.” “We treat the change of European Parliaments timetable as a correction that aligns the indicative plenary sitting date more closely with the previously rescheduled ECON vote. Therefore we do not consider the current announcement to be a significant change that might seriously jeopardize our implementation plan which already takes into account the working assumption that the Omnibus II Directive will be agreed on by the end of half-year 2012.” Central Bank of Ireland: “The Central Bank of Ireland’s view is that the rescheduled vote on Omnibus II does not impact the overall Solvency II implementation date of 1.1.2014. Our working assumptions on Solvency II implementation are as follows: – Solvency II will be transposed by Member States by 1.1.2013 – During 2013, there will be certain requirements for undertakings to report to supervisors and demonstrate their readiness for full Solvency II implementation – Solvency II comes into effect for all undertakings on 1.1.2014”

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