"Insurance are much less cited than banks such as support for the economybut wrongly. The contribution they can offer to growth is twofold, just as their nature is twofold”. She said it Salvatore Rossi, number one of the Insurance Supervisory Institute and general manager of the Bank of Italy, speaking at the ninth Congress of Fisac/Cgil.
“The companies insure against risks, that's their job: the risks of individuals, those of families, those of businesses – continued Rossi – Of the latter they improve creditworthiness itself, shifting the risk onto themselves, for example, from cyber attacks, from culpable events for which companies are called to answer, from events".
The President of IVASS then focused on the "topic of investments that insurance companies make with their huge resources. Buying government bonds is fine but, in the very interest of the stability of the insurance system, investments must be diversified. There is room to finance both infrastructure and business development".
From this point of view, “the introduction in Italy of Individual savings plans (PIR) – tax-subsidised savings instruments aimed at directing savings towards the real economy – was welcomed by investors and savers with great interest, also in the insurance sector. In some respects an analogous initiative is the one sui Pan-European Personal Pension Products (PEPP)".
The crux, from the side of the supervisors, “is to find a new point of balance between the protection of policyholders, the healthy and prudent company management insurance e the role that the insurance sector is called upon to play in supporting economic growth in our countries – concluded Rossi – It is one of the objectives of the current review of Solvency II, the framework of European rules on prudential supervision of the insurance sector. Solvency II has already been amended with a view to removing unnecessary obstacles to economic growth, with regard to investment in infrastructure and standardized and transparent securitisation. We expect that in this first general review they will come toned down, albeit with the necessary caution, some excessively onerous regulatory burdens for insurance companies intending to invest in certain asset classes, such as unrated bonds and unlisted equities”.
