IAIS Publishes Newsletter for May 2019
IAIS published the May issue of its newsletter, which highlights that the committee meetings next month in Buenos Aires mark an important point in the IAIS’ journey to a global Insurance Capital Standard (ICS). In June, the focus of committee discussions will shift from design to implementation issues. The final round of field testing is underway, with data due at the end of July. While some ICS design elements remain to be finalized this year, IAIS remains committed to resolving those elements and beginning the monitoring period in 2020, while recognizing that the ICS will continue to evolve during this period.
The IAIS Secretary General highlights that, in June, IAIS will discuss the overall framework for the monitoring period, including confidentiality safeguards around disclosure of the ICS results and modalities for considering unintended consequences. Discussions will cover timelines, process, and governance for developing comparability criteria and completing the comparability assessment of other solvency regimes relative to the ICS. Moving forward towards the adoption of ICS Version 2.0 for the monitoring period, IAIS will continue constructive engagement with stakeholders to ensure greater clarity on the process for finalizing and implementing the ICS. In addition, the newsletter mentions that after more than 17 years with IAIS, Deputy General Secretary Catherine Lezon-Gaertner will be leaving at the end of May 2019.
Other key updates in the newsletter include the following:
- At its meeting on May 09, the Executive Committee discussed the process for developing criteria to assess outcomes comparable to ICS, the issues related to the identification of internationally active insurance groups, and the implementation of ComFrame. At its meeting on May 17, the Executive Committee discussed outstanding issues related to the holistic framework for systemic risk and approved the draft 2020-2024 strategic plan and financial outlook.
- The Accounting and Auditing Working Group met on May 21-22 in Washington, DC and discussed the upcoming consultation of IASB on the IFRS 17 standard on insurance contracts and on the current consultation on Interest Rate Benchmark Reform, in addition to discussing the other relevant projects on the Board agenda. The Working Group also held a dialog with a securities regulator on the Monitoring Group and on audit quality issues. It held a second dialog with representatives of the Global Public Policy Committee’s Insurance Working Group on the potential development of audit papers on the implementation of IFRS 17 and audit quality issues.
- The Policy Development Committee met on April 30 to discuss issues related to the identification of internationally active insurance groups and implementation of ComFrame.
- On May 6-7, the Macro-prudential Policy and Surveillance Working Group met at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The two main agenda items were the review of Insurance Core Principle (ICP) 24 on macro-prudential surveillance and insurance supervision and the development of a sector-wide monitoring framework, which will be organized around the key insurance risks and trends survey of IAIS and will consist of quantitative and qualitative components.
Keywords: International, Insurance, Newsletter, ComFrame, ICP, ICS, Insurance Contracts, IFRS 17, IAIS
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