The Insurance and Pensions Authority issues discussion document on the valuation of assets and liabilities of long term insurers for solvency purposes

The Insurance and Pensions Authority has today issued a discussion document in respect of the valuation of the assets and liabilities for solvency purposes of insurers undertaking long term insurance business. This paper sets out the IPA’s current thinking in this regard, in advance of a more detailed consultation later in the year. The discussion document is issued now so that life insurers can prepare their valuation systems ahead of the IPA's planned Quantitative Impact Study later in 2014. It is accompanied by a draft Technical Specification, which sets out further technical detail of the likely approach, to assist with this preparation.

This document will be of direct interest to all existing and prospective insurance companies undertaking long term insurance business in or from the Isle of Man. In particular, it will be of interest to those with functional responsibility and oversight of the finance, actuarial and risk management functions within those companies. The accompanying draft Technical Specification will be of interest to those with responsibility for modelling, calculating, reviewing and/or using the calculation of technical provisions. Other parties with an interest in the Isle of Man life assurance sector may also find this discussion paper and the issues raised of interest.

The issue of the document follows the publication in June 2013 of the IPA’s ‘Roadmap for updating the Isle of Man’s regulatory framework for insurance business’. In this document the IPA set out its objective to implement an updated framework for the regulation and supervision of insurers and general insurance intermediaries that would enable the Isle of Man to maintain a high level of observance in respect of the Insurance Core Principles (ICPs) issued by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and which was appropriate and proportionate to the risks of different parts of the Isle of Man’s insurance industry.

The IPA invites comments from interested parties in respect of the discussion points considered in the document with the closing date for responses being 30 May 2014.

Further information and copies of both papers can be found in the consultation pages of the IPA's website.