Insurance Europe

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has for many years been developing a set of Insurance Core Principles (ICPs). The ICPs seek to encourage consistently high supervisory standards in IAIS member jurisdictions. ICPs do not have any legal basis in the EU but, once agreed internationally, European policymakers will consider if, and how, they should be incorporated into European regulation.

There have been two major projects in recent years. One is the Holistic Framework, adopted in November 2019. Its objective is to provide an international framework for insurance supervisors to support global financial stability through the assessment and mitigation of systemic risk in the global insurance sector. The Holistic Framework includes recovery and resolution and macro-prudential tools, both of which are areas included in the current review of Solvency II. Therefore, the Commission may make proposals as part of the review to implement some or all of the Holistic Framework into European legislation. 

Insurance Europe engages with the IAIS, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and European and non-European policymakers to make sure that any international standards take into account European regulatory developments and insurance markets and help achieve a global level playing field. This is to ensure that, if implemented in Europe, international standards deliver real value for European policyholders and do not lead to excessive costs or unintended consequences.