EU recognises Swiss solvency rules for insurers as equivalent
Bern, 15.10.2015 - Effective from 1 January 2016, the European Union will recognise Switzerland's regulatory and oversight regime regarding private insurers (e.g. Swiss Solvency Test, SST) as equivalent to European law. The formal decision on the recognition of equivalence was recently published in the Official Journal of the EU and came into force on 14 October 2015. The equivalence decision will simplify the activity of Swiss insurance and reinsurance groups in the European Union (EU).
The European Commission had already granted Switzerland full equivalence of its insurance regulatory regime for an unlimited period of time from 2016 at the start of June 2015. Given that neither the European Parliament nor the Council of Ministers applied a veto in the subsequent three months, the formal decision was published in the Official Journal of the EU at the end of September and is applicable from 14 October 2015. By granting equivalence for the insurance regulatory and oversight regime, the EU recognises the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA as a global group supervisor. In addition, EU groups can include the results of the Swiss Solvency Test (SST) when calculating group solvency. The recognition of equivalence will also have a positive impact for reinsurers, as they will be able to serve their EU clients directly from Switzerland and may not be put in a worse position than reinsurers from the EU.
"This is a welcome decision from the European Commission and will boost the competitiveness of the Swiss insurance industry," commented Ambassador René Weber, Head of the Markets Division in the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters (SIF). "Moreover, duplication can be avoided with regard to supervision."
Address for enquiries
Mario Tuor, Head of Communications, State Secretariat for International Financial Matters SIF
Tel. +41 58 462 46 16, mario.tuor@sif.admin.ch
Publisher
Federal Department of Finance
https://www.efd.admin.ch/efd/en/home.html