Solvency II Obligation Raises Bar for Financial Organisations to Manage Compliance and Risk Holistically

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services today launched a comprehensive solution that enables insurance, reinsurance and bancassurance firms to fulfill all three pillars outlined in the Solvency II regulatory requirement. The introduction of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ Solvency II offering will enable financial organisations to manage increasing compliance and risk challenges tied to the requirement more efficiently and effectively.

According to a May 2011 report from TowerGroup, Solvency II and other international regulations are "turning financial services institutions across the European Union into leaders in setting standards for operational risk management.”

"As these financial firms face dramatic changes on the regulatory front, there is a growing need for strong partners who can help them anticipate, prepare for and meet specific requirements,” said Brian Longe, CEO, Wolters Kluwer Financial & Compliance Services. "Our recent efforts in the UK and Europe help empower compliance and risk management professionals as they face increased scrutiny and global regulatory guidelines, including Solvency II. These efforts also demonstrate Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ continued focus on maximizing value for customers while expanding its global reach.”

In fact, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services is now the number one supplier of regulatory reporting solutions in the UK market following the acquisitions of FRSGlobal last fall and Spring Programs Ltd. (Spring) in April. The company also recently expanded its enterprise risk management offering, ARC Logics for Financial Services, to Europe. The solution, which was named Product of the Year by Operational Risk & Regulation, combines the company’s proven risk management technology with its trusted European regulatory content and compliance expertise.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ robust Solvency II offering builds upon its recent successful efforts in Europe and makes it possible for firms to address:

• Pillar 1 (Quantitative requirements): By using a fully integrated and automated EIOPA reporting solution with a regulatory update service including the calculation of solvency capital requirements (SCR, Minimum Capital Requirement, Risk Margin etc.).
• Pillar 2 (Governance and risk management requirements): Efficient analytics support insurers with the quantitative assessment and management of market and credit risk as well as the analysis of insurance risk based on an integrated and unified data model. Under Pillar 2, insurers must demonstrate their ability to manage risk. The solution can help insurers create an enterprise risk management (ERM) framework and conduct the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) in order to accomplish this. It also supports continuous reporting of ERM status to executives at group, regulated entity and major business unit levels.
• Pillar 3 (Disclosure and transparency requirements): The suite’s highly flexible reporting solution includes MIS dashboards, OLAP reporting and disclosure reporting functionality based on an integrated and unified data model. All of this helps organisations fulfil Pillar 3 of Solvency II, which calls for disclosure of risk and capital level information.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ Solvency II offering’s advanced analytics enable organisations’ compliance, risk and finance executives, as well as their boards of directors, to obtain a more complete and holistic view of risk data, and cohesively align risk-based decisions with business goals. The offering provides each with the intelligence and tools needed to perform their individual responsibilities, yet work together to help ensure compliance as a whole:

• Risk department is provided with an integrated ERM framework as well as support for the ORSA process and reporting obligation;
• Finance department can calculate Pillar I capital adequacy and utilize treasury management, financial risk modeling, and regulatory reporting oversight tools;
• Compliance department is provided with a control framework and regulatory reporting tools; and
• Executives and board members can achieve a more transparent view of enterprise risk through dashboards, scorecards and indicators.

In addition, its modular configuration allows customers to enhance or replace existing systems, providing solid building blocks for those organisations’ opting for an internal model approach.

"The Solvency II obligation clearly reinforces the need for financial organisations to take a more coordinated, enterprise-wide approach to managing both compliance and risk,” said Todd Cooper, vice president and general manager of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ Enterprise Risk Compliance business. "Our comprehensive Solvency II offering can help firms do so quickly and effectively.”

"The tools within our complete Solvency II offering are populated with predefined content and best practices that deliver Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ leading regulatory expertise to every user,” said Wolfgang Prinz, vice president with FRSGlobal, a Wolters Kluwer Financial Services company. "This helps them promote greater visibility, transparency and control, helping to address the organizational challenges of Solvency II.”

For more information about Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ Solvency II offering, please visit www.Solvency2explained.com

About Wolters Kluwer Financial Services

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services is a comprehensive regulatory compliance and risk management business that helps financial organisations manage operational, compliance and financial risk and reporting, and improve efficiency and effectiveness across their enterprise. Wolters Kluwer Financial Services supports its global customers with more than 30 offices in 20 countries and is a leading worldwide provider of compliance and risk management solutions for the financial services industry, serving more than 15,000 banking, insurance and securities customers across the globe. Wolters Kluwer Financial Services is part of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company focused on professionals with annual revenues (2010) of €3.6 billion (£3.1 billion), approximately 19,000 employees worldwide and operations in over 40 countries across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Visit our website, YouTube or follow @WKFinancialEU on Twitter for more information about our market positions, customers, brands, and organisation.