The National Bank of Serbia introduced several changes in its strategy for the implementation of the EU's Solvency II Directive, delaying the process.

Key changes have been introduced in the second phase of the implementation strategy, during which several quantitative impact studies will be conducted from 2018 to 2021 to assess the readiness of insurance and reinsurance companies to apply the new rules, the regulator noted. In addition, the deadline for the drafting of regulations that will set up a new insurance regulatory framework as part of the third stage of the strategy has been delayed until the end of 2021.

The first stage of the implementation, completed in April 2017, included the assessment of the compliance of national insurance legislation with the Solvency II rules, SEENews noted the same day. The second stage, including the impact assessment, and the third stage, focusing on the harmonization of regulatory frameworks, were supposed to be completed in the first half of 2018 and the end of 2018, respectively, the newswire noted.

Solvency II is a package of European insurance regulation that includes requirements around capital adequacy. Serbia is implementing the measures in line with its EU accession process.