On June 30, 2016, The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority ("EIOPA") published a final report providing technical advice to the European Commission on the identification and calibration of other infrastructure investment risk categories (that is, infrastructure corporates) under the Solvency II Directive. An infrastructure corporate is an entity or corporate group that carries out infrastructure activities (such as energy generation, social housing, healthcare or hospitals).
On October 14, 2015, EIOPA received a request from the European Commission for further technical advice on the issue of infrastructure corporates. In response, in November 2015, EIOPA published a call for evidence on the treatment of infrastructure corporates. The final report follows EIOPA's April 2016 consultation on the issues.
In the report, EIOPA recommends that the asset class is extended in two ways:
- To allow certain infrastructure corporates to qualify for the treatment for infrastructure projects provided that there is an equivalent level of risk.
- To create a separate differentiated treatment for equity investments in high-quality infrastructure corporates.
For those corporates that have a lower risk profile, EIOPA proposes reduction in the risk charges for equity investments.
EIOPA also recommends that insurers are required to conduct adequate due diligence, establish written procedures to monitor the performance of their exposures and perform stress testing on the cash flows and collateral values supporting their investment.
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