Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-22-Speech-3-011"
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"en.20090422.4.3-011"2
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"Madam President, you caught me slightly unawares as I had not seen the complete change of the timetable today, but I am very grateful for the chance to address the Chamber about a very important issue of the financial services industry, that is, the insurance and reinsurance industry, what we have done with the Solvency II report and how we have finally brought this now to Parliament in order to be able to establish what I think will be a very concrete basis for regulation across the European Union.
It is, of course, something which we are coming back to. There was Solvency I, and I am grateful to Mr Ettl when previously in Parliament we discussed this at some length and we managed to come up with some basis. But now we have to modernise, and the insurance industry is amongst many financial services industries which have to be at the forefront of change. It is clear, with the financial crisis and everything that has gone along with it, that the insurance industry is something which cannot be left alone.
There are several measures which come about from Solvency II which I think have helped to make this one of the leading reports, which will be a global leader at that. Amongst them is the issue of management of risk. I think it is not enough now that regulators simply tick boxes to establish whether or not the industry that they are meant to be guarding and protecting on behalf of the consumer is doing the right thing. It is essential that the day-to-day business of insurance and reinsurance companies is actually watched, managed and monitored by regulators over a period of time.
It is by this process and this process alone that we will be able to establish a proper and appropriate form of regulation. It is the reporting of companies: yes, they will be doing things to tell regulators what they are doing, but regulators will have to be involved. And across 27 Member States: not each individual Member State with their own separate rules now, considering what they can apply in terms of that regulation, but indeed they will be applying a standard formula of regulation across the European Union, which will lead, frankly, to the better consumer platform of protection that we expect.
Similarly, companies will manage to get economies of scale from this regulation, because now they will be reporting only in one way to each of the regulators. What they produce, what they have to say, what they do and how they report, will not just be to one regulator but it could be to a college of regulators, especially for groups, because, as insurance companies cross borders, it is now important that regulators team up and work together to ensure that the appropriate levels of reporting, the appropriate levels of figures and what information is supplied, are brought to bear to make sure that the markets are best protected.
It was during the discussion with the Council that Parliament saw some interesting and perhaps sometimes even deliberate ploys to move national industries one way or another, so I cannot pretend that this has not been a very difficult dossier to try to negotiate with the Council: it has. Parliament has pushed the Council a long way. It pushed it further than I think the Council established and really wanted to go under the last two presidencies, so I am very proud and pleased to have worked with the team that I have in order to be able to get the Council to move.
Unfortunately we will not have the kind of group support that we initially envisaged that we should, but because we are able to insert a review clause in this directive, we will be able to come back to group support and, three years after the introduction of this particular directive, I am hoping – and I expect the Commissioner to tell me that he will anticipate doing this as well – to be able to bring back group support in one way or another, specifically to match the economic side of this particular approach.
We want a regulation that is risk-based and principle-based, but one that will also support the capacity of the industry and one that will promote the very best instincts of regulators across the European Union and abroad. I will just finish on this one note. We must also challenge regulators elsewhere in the world and recognise country-to-country regimes only. I hope the Commissioner will agree with me about that."@en1
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