EIOPA CONFERENCE 2012 (21 November 2012, Frankfurt am Main) - coming soon!

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) is
pleased to announce that registration for its annual conference is now
open!
When: 21 November 2012
8:15 – 16:50 h

Where: Congress Center Messe Frankfurt


Panel sessions: »Pensions – What Shall We Change so that Nothing
Changes?«

Many of today's older Europeans can look forward to generous pensions
paid for many decades. But an ageing population, low growth and
constraints on public expenditure make the prospects for tomorrow's
pensioners uncertain. What should we change now to meet these challenges?

»Insurance Regulation – The Way Ahead«

At its inception, Solvency II showed the way ahead for the new insurance
regulatory landscape. The project would ensure high level standards for
consumer protection but also mirrored benefits for the industry in Europe
and globally.
Today, the project is facing its biggest challenge: reality. Which options
will ensure the long-term sustainability of the business in highly
volatile markets? Regulators, industry, consumers and practitioners are
invited to present their views on how to ensure the success of the
regulatory overhaul.

»Financial Stability – Are Insurers Actors or Victims?«

In the wake of the financial crisis, insurers find themselves in the middle
of the regulatory limelight amid discussions on systemic importance and
shadow banking. At the same time, the sector is struggling with declining
asset values and exceptionally low interest rates. Are insurers victims of
a banking-originated crisis, or actors in a global financial shake-up?

Key note speeches: Gabriel Bernardino; Chairperson, EIOPA, Frankfurt am
Main, Germany
Dr. Thomas Steffen; State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Berlin,
Germany
You can view the full programme here (Link:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/conferences-events/eiopa-conference/eiopa-conference-2012/programme/index.html
). Interested parties can find more information and registration details
on the conference website (Link:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/conferences-events/eiopa-conference/eiopa-conference-2012/index.html
).

Yours sincerely,

Florian Ouillades
on behalf of Gabriel Bernardino (Chairman EIOPA)

EIOPA
WesthafenTower
Westhafenplatz 1
60327 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Tel: +49 69 9511 19-20
Fax: +49 69 9511 19-19
eiopaconference@eiopa.europa.eu
www.eiopa.europa.eu




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EIOPA
WesthafenTower | Westhafenplatz 1 | 60327 Frankfurt | Germany
Phone: +49 69 951119-20
Fax: +49 69 951119-19

info@eiopa.europa.eu
https://eiopa.europa.eu

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password on the login page of the EIOPA Restricted Area.

EIOPA publishes the first part of the updated Technical Specifications for the valuation of Solvency II Balance Sheet

The updated Technical Specifications (TS) is a working document that EIOPA
recommends to insurance and reinsurance undertakings to use in any
quantitative assessments.

EIOPA decided to publish the updated TS in order to help participants in
the upcoming Long Term Guarantee Assessment (LTGA) to better prepare for
the exercise, whenever it is agreed between the trialogue parties.

However, the first part of the updated TS contains only general
specifications that don't depend on the Long Term Guarantee (LTG)
package. The LTG-related technical specifications are still under
political discussions and will be published by EIOPA in due course as a
second part.

The first part of the updated TS and the respective Annexes can be viewed
here (Link:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/consultations/qis/insurance/preparatory-forthcoming-assessments/index.html
).

The undertakings are kindly asked to submit their questions to their
supervisory authorities. Questions and answers of general interest will be
made publicly available on EIOPA website.


This newsletter was sent to you by:

EIOPA
WesthafenTower | Westhafenplatz 1 | 60327 Frankfurt | Germany
Phone: +49 69 951119-20
Fax: +49 69 951119-19

info@eiopa.europa.eu
https://eiopa.europa.eu

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Don't want to receive this newsletter anymore?

Please login to the Restricted Area of the EIOPA website and change
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https://eiopa.europa.eu/restricted-area/index.html

If you forgot your password, you will find a link to receive a new
password on the login page of the EIOPA Restricted Area.

EIOPA launches Quantitative Impact Study for occupational pensions

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) launches
today the first Quantitative Impact Study (QIS) on Institutions for
Occupational Retirement Provision (IORPs), as part of its process to
advise the European Commission on the review of the IORP Directive.

The QIS will assess the financial impact of different sets of options for
the valuation of the holistic balance sheet and the calculation of capital
requirements. It will also deal with the quantification of the security
and benefit adjustment mechanisms existing in different countries.

The exercise is targeted at IORPs that run defined benefit pension plans.
IORPs that only provide pure defined contribution schemes are excluded
from the scope. In order to facilitate the participation in the QIS of
smaller IORPs, EIOPA developed so-called 'helper tabs' –
spreadsheets that will assist IORPs in valuing sponsor support and pension
protection schemes by using simplifications.

Nine European countries, in which defined benefit pension plans are most
prevalent, have volunteered to participate in the study: Belgium, France,
Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the United
Kingdom. The national supervisory authorities (NSAs) are responsible for
conducting the QIS in their country. The exercise will be performed by
either selected IORPs or by the NSAs themselves using real or aggregate
data; or by actuarial firms acting on behalf of NSAs; or a combination.

EIOPA will coordinate the QIS at the European level, will be in charge of a
question & answer procedure and will analyse the individual data in order
to ensure consistency of the results.

The exercise runs until 17 December 2012 and the report on the QIS outcome
is expected to be released in spring 2013.

Gabriel Bernardino, Chairman of EIOPA, said: "I am pleased that we have
been able to take this important step in the development of a new European
framework for occupational pension funds. In our advice to the European
Commission we proposed the holistic balance sheet (HBS) concept as a means
to capture the wide diversity of retirement systems in a single prudential
regime. This QIS will allow us to investigate the feasibility of
implementing the HBS in practice".

The documentation related to the QIS for occupational pensions can be found
here (Link:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/consultations/qis/occupational-pensions/quantitative-impact-study/index.html
).


This newsletter was sent to you by:

EIOPA
WesthafenTower | Westhafenplatz 1 | 60327 Frankfurt | Germany
Phone: +49 69 951119-20
Fax: +49 69 951119-19

info@eiopa.europa.eu
https://eiopa.europa.eu

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Don't want to receive this newsletter anymore?

Please login to the Restricted Area of the EIOPA website and change
your user profile:

https://eiopa.europa.eu/restricted-area/index.html

If you forgot your password, you will find a link to receive a new
password on the login page of the EIOPA Restricted Area.

EIOPA publishes draft technical specifications for the QIS of its final advice on the IORP Directive review

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has
published today draft technical specifications for the quantitative impact
study (QIS) of EIOPA's advice to the European Commission (EC) on the
review of the IORP Directive. The advice recognises the importance of
performing a QIS and remains conditional on the results of the study.

Between 15 June and 31 July 2012 EIOPA conducted a public consultation on
the draft technical specifications for the QIS and received 117 responses
from Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and
the UK as well as from several European and international organisations.
41% of all the responses were submitted by employers, 24% by pension funds
and the remaining 35% of feedbacks originated from other organisations,
such as trade unions, insurers, actuarial consultants and asset managers.

The Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group of EIOPA also submitted its
opinion on the draft technical specifications (Link:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/fileadmin/tx_dam/files/Stakeholder_groups/opinions-feedback/20120801-EIOPA-OPSG-Opinion-CP-003-12-QIS-TS-IORPII.pdf
).

The consultation responses have been carefully considered and in some cases
the technical specifications were adjusted in the light of the comments
and suggestions received. EIOPA identified a number of areas in the
technical specifications that needed to be further developed and tested in
follow-up QIS exercises. A reasoned feedback on all the (non-confidential)
responses has been made available on EIOPA's website.

The draft technical specifications have been submitted to the European
Commission (The Internal Market and Services Directorate General). The EC
will consider the contents of the draft technical specifications and –
after possible amendments – will take ownership of the final technical
specifications.

The QIS exercise is expected to start in the first half of October and run
until mid-December 2012. EIOPA plans to publish the results of the QIS in
the second quarter of 2013.

The draft technical specifications, the responses to the public
consultation as well as EIOPA's reasoned feedback can be viewed here:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/consultations/consultation-papers/2012-closed-consultations/june-2012/cp-0032012-draft-technical-specifications-for-the-qis-of-eiopas-advice-on-the-review-of-the-iorp-directive/index.html
(Link:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/consultations/consultation-papers/2012-closed-consultations/june-2012/cp-0032012-draft-technical-specifications-for-the-qis-of-eiopas-advice-on-the-review-of-the-iorp-directive/index.html
)




This newsletter was sent to you by:

EIOPA
WesthafenTower | Westhafenplatz 1 | 60327 Frankfurt | Germany
Phone: +49 69 951119-20
Fax: +49 69 951119-19

info@eiopa.europa.eu
https://eiopa.europa.eu

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Don't want to receive this newsletter anymore?

Please login to the Restricted Area of the EIOPA website and change
your user profile:

https://eiopa.europa.eu/restricted-area/index.html

If you forgot your password, you will find a link to receive a new
password on the login page of the EIOPA Restricted Area.

EU-US Insurance Regulatory Dialogue Project invites public comment

The Steering Committee of the EU-US Dialogue Project invites public comment
on the draft factual Report based on the results of the Project's seven
technical committees.

The objective of the Project, which builds on more than a decade of EU-US
regulatory dialogue, is to deepen insight into the overall design,
function and objectives of the key aspects of the insurance supervisory
regimes in the European Union and the United States, and to identify
important characteristics of both regimes.

The Report addresses the following seven areas and identifies key
commonalities and differences of the two regimes:
Professional secrecy and confidentiality; Group supervision; Solvency and
capital requirements; Reinsurance and collateral requirements; Supervisory
reporting, data collection and analysis and disclosure; Supervisory peer
reviews; Independent third party reviews and supervisory on-site
inspections;

All interested parties can contribute to the consultation process by
participating in the two public hearings that will take place at 14.00 hrs
EDT on 12 October 2012 in Washington DC at the Grand Hyatt and at 10.00
hrs CET on 16 October 2012 in Brussels at the Centre de Conférences
Albert Borschette.

Requests to provide oral statements during the public hearings should be
sent by 10 October 2012 to the following email addresses:
tom.finnell{at}treasury.gov (Link: tom.finnell@treasury.gov )
(Washington Hearing) and Manuela.Zweimueller{at}eiopa.europa.eu
(Link: Manuela.Zweimueller@eiopa.europa.eu ) (Brussels
Hearing).

Registration to attend the hearings – whether or not there is an intent
to provide an oral statement - has to be carried out via the respective
email account and webpage:

Washington Hearing:
useuprojecthearingdc{at}naic.org (Link:
useuprojecthearingdc@naic.org )

Brussels Hearing (Please note that the registration will start as of the
next week only):
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/insurance/solvency/latest/index_en.htm
(Link:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/insurance/solvency/latest/index_en.htm )

Written submissions by all interested parties are also welcome and can be
sent to the email address: EUUSProjectReport{at}eiopa.europa.eu
(Link: EUUSProjectReport@eiopa.europa.eu ) before 23.55 hrs
CET on 28 October 2012.

The EU-US Dialogue Project started in early 2012, when the European
Commission (EC), EIOPA, the US National Association of Insurance
Commissioners (NAIC) and the Federal Insurance Office of the US Department
of the Treasury (FIO) agreed to participate in a deeper dialogue project
(Project) to contribute to an increased mutual understanding and enhanced
cooperation between the EU and the U.S. to promote business opportunity,
consumer protection and effective supervision.

Seven Technical Committees (TC) of the Project were established in order to
address the above outlined specific topics. Each TC comprises experienced
professionals from both the European Union and the United States,
specifically, from FIO, the EC, the NAIC and EIOPA, as well as
representatives from state insurance regulatory agencies in the US and
competent authorities of EU Member States.

The Steering Committee of the Project was established in order to take all
key decisions on the direction of the Project and to provide clarity to
the technical committees. The Steering Committee consists of six members,
comprised of three US and three EU officials: Michael McRaith, Director of
FIO; Kevin McCarty, President of the NAIC; Terri Vaughan, CEO of the NAIC;
Karel Van Hulle, EC Head of Unit, Gabriel Bernardino, Chairman of EIOPA;
and Ed Forshaw, Manager Prudential Policy Division of the FSA and Chair of
EIOPA's Equivalence Committee.

More information on the two public hearings is available on EIOPA website
(Link:
https://eiopa.europa.eu/consultations/public-hearings/forthcoming/20121016/index.html
).


This newsletter was sent to you by:

EIOPA
WesthafenTower | Westhafenplatz 1 | 60327 Frankfurt | Germany
Phone: +49 69 951119-20
Fax: +49 69 951119-19

info@eiopa.europa.eu
https://eiopa.europa.eu

---

Don't want to receive this newsletter anymore?

Please login to the Restricted Area of the EIOPA website and change
your user profile:

https://eiopa.europa.eu/restricted-area/index.html

If you forgot your password, you will find a link to receive a new
password on the login page of the EIOPA Restricted Area.