Capital Requirements, Disclosure, and Supervision in the European Insurance Industry: New Challenges towards Solvency II - Tapa dura

European insurance companies are facing a range of new challenges and innovations. Solvency II will pose capital requirement, disclosure and supervision issues as it is one of the most important regulatory innovations in the field of insurance in the past 20 years. The wide range of innovations occurring and the number of operators involved through impact studies and assessments have created an atmosphere of great expectation surrounding Solvency II and its implementation. The adoption of a risk-based approach will be one of the most important innovations of the new regulatory framework, determining important issues related to capital requirements and their supervision as well as their disclosure to the market.

Capital Requirements, Disclosure, and Supervision in the European Insurance Industry provides an in-depth analysis of Solvency II's issues by combining both a theoretical approach and evidence of the empirical implications and effects on the European insurance industry. This study discusses the new challenges facing insurance companies through the examination of its structure, the rules with which insurance companies operating in Europe have to be compliant, and their implementation.

Providing a comprehensive analysis of the risk management practices and supervisory issues in the European insurance industry, it will be of interest to anyone researching or practicing in the field, as well as providing an invaluable resource for students of related degree programs and researchers interested in financial intermediaries and the risk and capital management factors of insurance companies.

Maria Grazia Starita is Lecturer in Financial Markets and Institutions in the Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, University of Naples 'Parthenope', Italy, where she teaches Management of Insurance Companies and Corporate Finance. Her main research interests are insurance companies, pension funds, bank-firm relationship, disclosure, and Islamic finance.

Irma Malafronte holds a PhD in Banking and Finance from the University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Italy. She conducts research in Financial Markets and Institutions in the Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, University of Naples 'Parthenope', Italy. Her main research interests are insurance companies, disclosure, bank-firm relationship, and market discipline.