Tidjane Thiam has been appointed as chairman of ABI, with effect from 3 July 2012.

EIOPA has published a summary of responses to its November 2011 consultation on a proposal for guidelines and best practices report on complaints handling by insurance undertaking, together with a substantive resolutions report plus a summary of responses received to the consultation and finalised guidelines and best practices report.

This consultation sets out proposals with regard to the above. It argues that the business insured’s duty of disclosure unclear and sometimes poorly understood, while the consequence of breach is too harsh. Proposals aim to clarify how policyholders are expected to comply with the duty when presenting a risk to insurers and to encourage insurers to assist them in that task and fairer remedies for breach. With regard to warranties, the consultation proposes that breach of a warranty should suspend the insurer’s liability for the duration of the breach; remedy of the breach restores liability. Where a term is designed to reduce a particular type of risk, it is proposed that liability is suspended only in relation to that risk. This would be mandatory for consumer insurance but subject to freedom to contract for business insurance. Comments on the paper should be received by: 26 September 2012

The Chief Executive of the Bermuda Monetary Authority has claimed that the islands are "on the right track" to meeting capital requirements for Solvency II equivalency.

This report notes recent progress on CRD 4, CRA 3, Mortgage Credit Directive and a draft directive on the harmonisation of transparency requirements for listed companies. With regard to the financial transaction tax, it is noted that “support for an FTT as proposed by the Commission was not unanimous. It also noted the support of a significant number of delegations for considering enhanced cooperation, which would allow a limited number of member states to proceed amongst themselves, making use of the EU institutions. The presidency noted that formal requirements for enhanced cooperation would have to be met, and that next steps will be handled by the incoming Cyprus presidency”

IAIS reports on its recent global seminar, which included panels on financial stability and recent revisions to the IAIS’ Insurance Core Principles (ICPs) and access to insurance.

The report is adopted at first reading, calls on the EC to refer the matter to Parliament again if it intends to amend its proposal substantially or replace it with another text and instructs its President to forward its position to the European Council, the EC and the national parliaments.

A proposed amendment to Solvency II from rapporteur Burkhard Balz would potentially allow life insurers a seven-year transition period in which to phase in new capital requirements for existing policies. (Via German FT.)

FSA has published the text of a letter sent to firms from Julian Adams which sets out FSA’s thinking on the way in which it would monitor the ongoing appropriateness of internal models after approval.

FSCP highlights work conducted over the past year and outlines its key priorities for the next year (including poor practices in general insurance; decumulation; the shape of future financial services regulation; the future effectives of FCA as a conduct regulator (in the introduction, the chairman notes “we are looking forward to the FCA becoming an effective regulator in a way the FSA has never been … it will have to be clearer than the FSA has been about what it expects and more determined to achieve what it sets out to do”); effective consumer representation at EU level and consumer credit regulation.