Re:insurance - Our guide to reform affecting the insurance industry
Reform affecting the insurance industry
Our online technical resource Re:insurance is designed to assist our clients and contacts in keeping track of the myriad of developments currently affecting the insurance industry, including the Solvency II Directive, the new regulatory regime implemented by the Financial Services Act 2012, and the proposed recast Insurance Mediation Directive, known as IMD2. The technical resource is divided into five distinct sections.
Firstly, we provide a regulatory timeline, which lists the key dates for insurers between now and 2015. The timeline is updated regularly and includes brief summaries of each development and links to useful primary materials and our briefing notes.
We have also identified what we consider to be the key developments in 2013. In this section of the technical resource we include a helpful guide to the Solvency II Directive, which will significantly change the supervision of insurers and reinsurers across Europe. A definitive timetable for implementation remains illusive and the Directive continues to face delays. We maintain a blog providing regular updates as we move toward the new regime. The Financial Services Act has made significant changes to the regulation of the insurance industry. Under the new regime, prudential and conduct regulation is spilt between two authorities. The technical resource contains both a note and blog considering the changes to insurance regulation following ‘legal cutover’ on 1 April 2013. We also focus on the European Commission’s proposal for IMD2 and insurance contract law reform.
The section entitled Cases of interest contains summaries of insurance-related cases, which have been written by Professor Rob Merkin who is a consultant to the insurance and reinsurance and international arbitration teams. The cases are divided by subject area and links have been provided to copies of the judgments on Bailii wherever possible.
The next section provides an archive containing editions of Insurance focus, our analysis of key legal developments in the insurance industry. Finally, we have included a section entitled Global regulation, which includes updates from across our international practice.