All articles by Jeremy Woolfe
Jeremy Woolfe
EU in regulatory overdrive mode
Twelve-hour days are more or less the norm for the 200 European Commission (EC) officials in Brussels writing up new legislation to rein in financial services They are working in response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis and they follow norms set by various G-20 meetings
EC moves to fill protection gaps
Although Solvency II should considerably reduce the risk of insurers failing, the European Commission is concerned the absence of a uniform system of guarantee schemes across the European Union remains a serious shortcoming With over a quarter of life insurance policies in Europe lacking any kind of protection if companies fail, the European Commission (EC) has plans to bring in pan-EU coverage
Solvency II impact ahead of its day
With the still hotly debated Solvency II regulatory regimes implementation some 18 months away, insurers in the EU are looking to upgrade risk and capital management technology systems. Waiting in the wings are solution vendors eager to assist insurers with what is a complex challenge
Europe sitting on longevity time bomb
The financial crisis is at the forefront of international attention, but there is a issue Europe faces with the potential to make the current economic woes pale into insignificance: its ageing population.
The compliance modelling challenge
Work on the Solvency II compliance modelling needed to ensure stages are ready for implementation by 31 October 2012 is proceeding at a frenetic pace. Jeremy Woolfe looks behind the scenes of what is, for insurers, an extremely costly and complex implementation process.
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European industry weathers the storm
A slump in equity values and a major outflow from investment funds resulted in Europes investment management industry suffering a significant decline in assets in 2008
European Union scrambles into action
Spurred on by the global financial crisis, the European Union has embarked on a wide-ranging reform of financial services legislation Jeremy Woolfe reports from Brussels on a major objective, one fraught with difficulty, to create legislative harmony among the 27 EU member states Pressures arising from the financial crisis are driving unprecedented urgency into plans embracing financial services legislation in the European Union (EU)
Crisis sparks regulatory overhaul
Spurred into action by the credit crunch, the European Parliament is demanding of the European Commission that by the end of November it produces recommendations that will bring about a sweeping change of the European Unions financial regulatory legislation In the shadow of the global financial crisis, the European Parliament (EP) has plunged for a wholesale overhaul of the European Unions (EU) legislation to supervise its financial services
CEA calls for a bigger pensions role for insurers
Insight into the role of insurers in the provision of pensions in the European Union has been provided by a first-of-its kind study produced by the Brussels-based Comit Europen des Assurances (CEA), an industry body representing 5,000 European insurers and reinsurers The survey, entitled The role of Insurance in the provision of pension revenue, fills a gap in that, until now, the size of the pensions market and insurers share of pensions contributions in Europe has been relatively unknown. According to the CEA, total annual premium income for the provision of pension revenue coming from all sources is more than 1.22 trillion ($1.8 trillion), of which the largest part, 69 percent, comes from first-pillar state pensions, mainly organised by public authorities and based on the pay-as-you-go principle.
Europe’s life insurers are riding high
In particular, the picture is characterised by life business premium income in Europe recording its third year of robust growth in 2006 to reach a record 659 billion