Solvency II approach to the risk management in commercial insurance companies

Abstract

In the year 2001, the European Comission started to revise the legislation Solvency I and to implement a new approach called Solvency II. The regulation called Solvency II is based on regulation considering management of risks of commercial insurance companies. Changes on financial markets and the contemporary financial crisis made financial authorities to formulate principles of regulation based on risk management. Commercial insurance companies across Europe will face a considerable amount of work to be ready for requirements related with Solvency II implementation in the year 2012. Rating agencies, regulators and investors today are demanding that insurers provide detailed assessments of their risk tolerance and quantify the adequacy of their economic capital. To complete such assessments requires a credible baseline for underwriting volatility. Modern portfolio theory for assets teaches that increasing the number of stocks in a portfolio will diversify and reduce the portfolio risk, but will not eliminate risk completely, the systemic market risk remains. In the same way, insurers can reduce underwriting volatility by increasing account volume, but they cannot reduce their volatility to zero. A certain level of systemic insurance risk will always remain, due to factors such as for example the underwriting cycle, macroeconomic factors, legal changes and weather.This presented scientific paper focuses on an analysis of specific goals of the regulation Solvency II and the structure of second pillar of the three-pillar construction (similarity with Basel II banking regulation) of Solvency II. The paper was written as part of research project MSM 6215648904, carried out by the Faculty of Business and Economics, under the title “The Czech Republic in the pro­ces­ses of integration and globalization, and the development of the agriculture and service sector in the new conditions of the integrated European market”, following the goals and methodology of the research project.

Keywords

• commercial insurance company
• solvency
• risk management
• regulation of the insurance industry
• supervisory authority
• capital requirement