News

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has today ruled that Article 5(2) of the Gender Directive 2004/113/EC breaches European Union gender discrimination laws.  Article 5(2) currently permits individual member states to differentiate between men and women when pricing insurance where statistical evidence shows gender is a determining risk factor.  The ECJ has ruled that this derogation is invalid from 21st December 2012.  

The Society of Actuaries in Ireland has responded to a “Consultation on Impact Metrics for the Risk Based Supervision of Financial Firms by the Central Bank and on Impact Based Levies”.

The Society has responded to the EIOPA (formerly CEIOPS) consultation paper CP83, “Draft Report on Variable Annuities”.

We welcomed the Draft Report and expressed support for a substantial majority of the recommendations made in it.

The Society has responded to the Central Bank of Ireland consultation paper on “Review of the Consumer Protection Code”.

Read the consultation paper 

Read the Society’s response 

IAA News Release:

The International Actuarial Association is pleased to announce the completion of the paper Note on the Use of Internal Models for Risk and Capital Management Purposes by the Solvency Subcommittee of the Insurance Regulation Committee.

An expert working group on medical negligence litigation, chaired by High Court Judge Mr Justice John Quirke and including Mr James Kehoe, Fellow, Society of Actuaries in Ireland, has reported that the current system of awarding lump sum payments for damages for future care needs in medical negligence, and all other cases where catastrophic injuries are awarded damages, is inadequate and inappropriate.

The Management Board of the UK Actuarial Profession has identified enterprise risk management (ERM) as an area of growth, particularly within the financial sector.

The Financial Regulator has published a consultation paper on "Corporate Governance Requirements for Credit Institutions and Insurance Undertakings".

The paper attempts to align corporate governance requirements with recent international regulatory initiatives in the governance field and proposes minimum standards that credit institutions and insurance undertakings will be expected to meet in this area.

In an address to a Financial Regulator Solvency II Insurance Forum this week, Jonathan McMahon, Assistant Director General, Financial Institutions Supervision, urged companies to allocate significant resources to the implementation of Pillar 2 (risk management and governance) and Pillar 3 (supervisor reporting and disclosure) of the Solvency II framework.  He commented that the implementation of Basel II (The Capital Requirements Directive) led banks and regulators to place too much importance on models and their outputs.  He stressed that, while high quality models are important,

Newsletter February 2010

Mr Bill Prasifka, currently Chairman of the Competition Authority, has been appointed as Financial Services Ombudsman.  He replaces Mr Joe Meade, who retired last month.

It is expected that Mr Prasifka will take up his appointment by the end of March 2010 or soon thereafter. Mr PJ Fitzpatrick will remain as Interim Ombudsman until then.

CEIOPS  has published its third and final set of Advice on Solvency II Level 2 Implementing Measures following formal approval by CEIOPS Members, together with a