Insurance Europe

Insurers have remained strong despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and they generally weathered the earlier financial crisis well. Indeed, insurance failures are rare and — unlike bank failures — do not happen suddenly, which allows for a managed wind-down that avoids systemic risk or losses for taxpayers. 

The EU’s prudential framework for insurers, Solvency II, is also strong. It includes a ladder of supervisory intervention, so supervisors can already intervene should an insurer breach its solvency capital requirement (SCR), which is significantly higher than its actual minimum capital requirement (MCR).