UK Minister hails Solvency II

Ivan Lewis MP, a minister at the UK's Treasury with responsibility for insurance, has hailed the Solvency II process as a mechanism to enable the EU's insurance industry to remain competitive in the face of the globalisation of the financial services industry.

Lewis was speaking at the Life & Pensions insurance risk conference in December, where he highlighted what the Treasury saw as the five main trends in global economy that were changing the financial services landscape, and that provided the catalyst for reform of the regulatory framework.

The growth in emerging economies, tougher global competition and the increasing rewards from innovation, demographic change and the liberalisation of financial markets, were all "driving structural changes in