BANK OF ENGLAND MULLS MORE FLEXIBLE CAPITAL RULES

The Bank of England is considering more flexible capital rules for UK insurers, although a wholesale move away from the EU’s Solvency II regime is unlikely, according to Anna Sweeney, co-leader for the insurance sector at the Bank of England (BoE). From December, the UK will have an opportunity to change UK insurance rules, but this will not mean ditching the EU capital regime. “I don’t think we are saying we want to go necessarily all the way back, but some of the flexibility we had in that regime would be a good thing,” Sweeney told the Association of British Insurers’ annual conference. While there are discussions at an EU level to change the risk margin, the UK could adopt the changes earlier. “We would absolutely look at the timing, but I can’t sit here and say we would definitely go earlier as it depends on that broader discussion,” Sweeney said. Sweeney said she did not think there were “loads” of things to fix with Solvency II, but requirements for reporting data to regulators were burdensome for smaller insurers.