For more information contact: Becky Martin-Jones/Naomi Ritchie T. 01454 629741
As the Solvency II deadline looms and research shows many insurers will need to implement new reporting processes to meet its requirements, Vantage Performance Solutions is warning that insurers need to implement transparent and agile reporting solutions to fulfil the criteria.
The warning follows a recent survey carried out by Ernst and Young which found that, of 50 European insurance companies surveyed, almost all felt they would need to implement new data repositories and reporting tools to meet the January 2014 deadlinei. Meanwhile, only a quarter felt they could meet the reporting requirements through incremental changes to their incumbent systems.
The Solvency II Directive has been formulated to ensure that European insurers have adequate capital to cover their commitments and reduce the risk of insolvency.
There are three pillars to Solvency II and it is important that insurers pay attention to the Pillar 3 requirements, which focus on disclosure and transparency requirements and deal with reporting, both to the public and to the regulatory bodies.
Steve Mainprize is Technology Strategy Manager for Vantage Performance Solutions, which provides SAP consultancy services for SAP EPM, SAP PCM and SAP BPC. He says, “One issue is that only a few people in an organisation fully understand what the requirements are and how to get hold of the data, hence it can take a long time to get the Pillar 3 reporting in place.
“According to a recent SAP infographicii, the main reasons cited for increased close times are the need to check for more errors, more levels of internal review and the need to capture and consolidate more detail.
“Regulators are going to be unimpressed with reports that are incomplete or published late with errors. An insurer that produces poor quality reporting can expect to have to reissue its reports and if it continues to fail to meet the expectations, the regulator can compensate by increasing the amount of capital required which will consequently affect the firm’s financial performance. “The above issues explain why we are increasingly seeing insurers using Enterprise Performance Management solutions to build their systems for Solvency II. We believe this is because of the ability to provide a faster close, rapid deployment, easy data acquisition and internal consistency. These factors are all highly relevant for any Solvency II reporting solution.” Vantage Performance Solutions has many years’ experience of the Life and General Insurance market delivering solutions in the areas of: efficient planning; profitability analysis by product, customer and channel combinations; cost management to reduce the costs without removing value; and segmental reporting.About Vantage Performance Solutions
The business of financial systems is complex. Vantage Performance Solutions removes the complexity to improve business performance. Using SAP Business Objects Enterprise Performance Management software, Vantage Performance Solutions can increase visibility across the business, resulting in greater control, efficiency and intelligence to make informed business decisions. For further information visit: www.vantage-ps.com.
i http://www.ey.com/GL/en/industries/Financial-Services/Insurance/Pillar-III-and-meeting-Solvency-II-requirements ii http://www.slideshare.net/SAPanalytics/accelerating-your-financial-close-infographic]]>
