Reserve Bank refines insurance interim solvency standard

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has published a “review version” of the insurance interim solvency standard, which determines the minimum amounts of capital that insurers must hold.

The review of the solvency was initiated in October 2020, and after two initial consultation cycles, an exposure draft of an interim solvency standard was published in July 2021. A quantitative impact assessment was run in parallel to the consultation, and the results of both were published in a feedback statement in March.

According to RBNZ, the review version contains several amendments to the July 2021 version. While the regulator is not conducting a full consultation on this version of the standard, it invited interested parties to comment on any technical or workability issues not previously identified. RBNZ will also be conducting a second quantitative impact assessment on a largely voluntary basis.

“We plan to finalise the interim standard over the coming months, taking into account the feedback received on the review version and the results of the new quantitative impact assessment,” RBNZ said. “We plan to publish the final version of the Interim Standard by the end of September.”