Captive conundrum

Jonathan Teacher of Norton Rose asks, will Solvency II force captives to leave Europe?

The captive insurance industry’s scrutiny of the potential effects of the Solvency II Directive on it has intensified in the last year. A relatively short timescale to full implementation of the directive on 31 October 2012 combined with the early stage of transition of the directive into implementing regulations (no consultation paper on how the implementing regulations are to be applied to captive insurers has been published) has heightened concern over its potential impact.