What We Do

The Institute is increasingly involved in advocacy and analysis regarding the complex set of regulatory issues affecting the insurance industry. Through its Committee on International Insurance Regulatory Issues, under the strong leadership of Walter Kielholz from Swiss Re, the IIF works on regulatory issues affecting internationally active insurance companies. Such issues include the development of international solvency standards, effective supervision of international insurance groups, the functioning of colleges of supervisors, and most recently, the debate of the potential systemic relevance of insurance firms.

The IIF participates actively in dialogue with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), of which is an Observer. The Institute seeks to forge an effective dialogue with the international insurance regulatory community, including not only the IAIS bur regulators from jurisdictions such as the US, the EU, Switzerland and Japan, as well as supervisors from emerging market jurisdictions.

Current Workflow

The insurance-related work of the IIF is currently focused on the finalization of a Report on the “Implications of Cross-sectoral Regulatory Change for the Insurance Industry”. There report is addressing fundamental questions such the core differences between insurance and banking and the different core objectives of their regulatory frameworks; the possible unintended consequences for insurance of banking and general financial regulatory reform; the potential for regulatory arbitrage arising from very dissimilar regulatory treatment of similar financial activities; discussion of contingent capital and resolution issues from the perspective of insurers; and the implications for insurance of the current state of securitization markets. It is expected that the group will issue a report with its final findings at the end of the second quarter of 2011, which will be disseminated widely among the regulatory community.
The IIF will also focus more closely on the issue of systemic risk and the insurance industry as part of the overall dialogue on this issue with the FSB, the Basel Committee and the IAIS.