Prudential chief executive hits out once again at Solvency II, warning its US operation “won’t be able to sell products”

Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam

Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam has hit out at Solvency 2 once again as the UK’s largest insurer notched up a £2bn operating profit in 2011.

Thiam said: “I can tell you fighting US competitors who don’t have to worry about Solvency II, we just won’t have a market, we won’t be able to sell any products at all.”

A top Bank of England official, Paul Tucker, also hit out at Solvency II, saying he was “dismayed by how much it is costing the industry and regulator to adapt to Solvency 2.”

The deputy governor for financial stability said the EU legislation “risks being too complicated in its desire to introduce a ‘risk sensitive regime’.”