Irish Insurance Federation chief executive Michael Kemp has warned it is too early to gauge the success of the new Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) guidelines.
The new guidelines were introduced in July following the International Monetary Fund's critical assessment of financial regulation last year.

Kemp does not anticipate insurers will have found compliance difficult, but said only the annual results would show how successful the guidelines
had been.

"In terms of things like appointing compliance officers, it's proceeding like normal," he said.
"With issues like actuarial certification and financial condition reports, we won't be able to tell until we have this year's accounts."

Kemp said the insurance industry was heavily consulted during the formulation of the guidelines and was satisfied with the finished result.

A DETE spokeswoman said compliance with the guidelines would be monitored through
on-site DETE visits to insurance companies.

"We're dealing with a number of detailed questions from individual companies on aspects
of the guidelines," she said.

"So far, as expected because of the extensive consultation process, no major problems have been identified."

Insurance companies have been allowed 2001 to familiarise themselves with the guidelines, which will become compulsory in 2002.
"Nevertheless, we expect to see by end-year that companies under our supervision have taken the necessary steps to comply with the guidelines, including actuarial certification of the 2001 technical reserves of non-life companies," the spokeswoman said.

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