Federal financial regulators have announced their plans for a new quantitative impact study of possible changes to the capital rules for life insurers.
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has sent a letter to federally-regulated life insurers inviting them to participate in a new quantitative impact study (QIS), which is designed to “gather information related to all potential methods developed to date for determining capital requirements for implementation in 2018.”
The new study includes changes to credit, market, insurance and operational risk calculations based on feedback received on the most recent QIS, along with additional analysis and data. “The QIS is not intended to be a statement of OSFI’s positions. The methods and scenarios included represent “work in progress” and will be reconsidered in light of additional information, including the results of this and other studies and developments,” it says; and stresses that the results “should not be interpreted as OSFI’s final views on the potential capital requirements for life insurers.”
OSFI is seeking responses from the industry by Jan. 31, 2015. And, it says that it may request additional tests on alternative approaches, and may have further questions about the design of components of the life insurance capital framework as they are developed.