Insurance Supervision Outside the EU

René Doff

The previous chapter discussed how the regulatory framework for insurers in Europe was being updated through Solvency II. This initiative does not stand alone, but fits into a global trend of enhanced insurance regulation and supervision. This chapter will discuss a couple of initiatives that illustrate this point, and which serve as a counter example to Solvency II.

We will start by analysing the global initiative of the global supervisory forum, before looking at four separate insurance markets: the US, UK, Switzerland and Singapore. These markets are sufficiently different for there to be variation in their supervisory approaches. However, as will be demonstrated, they are all moving towards a more risk-based supervision that we can also see in Solvency II.

INSURANCE CORE PRINCIPLES

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) is a global forum whose members are insurance regulators from about 140 countries. Its objectives are to promote consistency in insurance regulation across nations to ensure global financial stability and policyholder protection. While the IAIS publishes standards and guidelines on behalf of all its members, its publications do