Daily briefing: Friday - Solvency II: a nightmare made in Brussels

Like a bad dream, there seems to be no end to the Solvency II process. To be strictly accurate, there appears to be no beginning either, following the news that the start date for implementing the directive has been put back yet again.

Last year, EU internal markets commissioner Michel Barnier announced a three-month delay to the implementation of Solvency II. But even this revised date of new year’s day 2013 soon looked unrealistic.

Under pressure

Mounting concerns over the readiness of the EU’s insurance industry culminated in the publication of an unprecedented joint letter from the heads of the continent’s main insurance umbrella bodies to Barnier, urging the European Commission to rejig the timetable for the directive.

Insurers and regulators, particularly those in the newer and poorer EU member states, are nowhere near meeting the directive’s more exacting provisions.

Barnier signalled in a speech to the European insurers’ umbrella body CEA last week that the European Commission was exploring ‘transitional measures’, effectively delaying the directive’s full implementation.

Yesterday it emerged that the Council of Europe, the EU’s decision-making body for the member states, had agreed a proposal to postpone the directive’s coming into force.

Some believe that even this revised date may be up for grabs. For those insurers that have invested millions in getting ready for first 2012, then 2013 and now 2014, the latest delay will be galling.

But even this date, some warn, may prove hard to adhere to.

Formidable forces

On this side of the Channel, meanwhile, big news has emerged from the occasionally entangled fortunes of Arthur J Gallagher and Towergate.

Gallagher’s onward march continues today as it emerged that 13 members of Lonmar Global Risk team have joined the US-owned broker.

As first revealed on insurancetimes.co.uk in early April, casualty managing director Tom Payne is quitting with his team.

With its purchase of Heath Lambert, the acquisition of Essex-based managing general agency Woodbrook and now the Lonmar swoop, Gallagher continues to expand on every front.

Meanwhile, Towergate announced yesterday that it has filled the posts vacated by the three managing directors who recently quit Towergate Underwriting for Gallagher.

Then Towergate said it was back on the acquisition trail with this morning’s news that the king of the consolidators has bought BWA. The purchase is Towergate’s first since Advent International equipped the company with a £90m war chest following its refinancing deal earlier this year.

Recently appointed head of retail Jonathan Walker has announced that BWA is the first of “what we hope will be many acquisitions in the south-east of England”. Located in Tunbridge Wells, the BWA acquisition will reinforce Towergate’s already strong position in its Kent heartland.