Willis chief says directive has 'lost track of its bigger goal'
Joe Plumeri has warned that the EU’s upcoming Solvency II directive will make it harder to do business in the insurance sector.
In a keynote presentation, which kicked off this year’s Biba conference, the Willis chairman and chief executive expressed his concerns about the upcoming directive, which will force insurers to hold more capital on their balance sheets.
“Rather than improve the system, Solvency II will make it more difficult. Solvency II has lost track of its bigger goal,” he said.
Touching on the intermediaries directive, which the EU is also currently preparing, he said the industry needed "certainty and clarity".
He also commented that US regulators, like their UK counterparts, did not grasp the differences between banks and insurance companies. “They misunderstand that it’s the banks that went under.”
And he issued a strong defence of his company’s controversial decision not to take contingent commissions. He said: “As the world becomes more risky, then more people will appreciate what we do. We have to be transparent.”
Turning to the recent formation of a coalition government in the UK, he said: “This type of power sharing has not been tried for 65 years, and for good reason.” But he said that the London market retained its position at the “heart” of the global insurance industry.
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