At the end of 2015, the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) announced that it would start an investigation into the capital policies of insurers in 2016. On 24 February 2016, DNB announced in its newsletter that it will commence its investigation in March 2016.

The primary goal of DNB’s investigation is to assess whether the capital policy of insurers is in line with Solvency II requirements. Points of attention for DNB will be insurers’ dividend policy, substantiation of the insurers’ internal standards and the way in which the Ultimate Forward Rate (UFR) and Long Term Guarantee (LTG) are taken into account. In addition, with respect to insurance groups DNB will also review aspects such as double leverage and the allocation of buffers between group entities and solo entities.

DNB expects that it will be able to share the first results of its investigation before the summer 2016.

View DNB’s news item on its investigation (Dutch only), 24 February 2016.