Dr. Cyril Roux:

On the powers given to us under Solvency II, we flagged the question of insurance groups. Deputy Pearse Doherty referred to the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, report which stated there are several powers under regulation which do not carry over to groups. At the same time, the IMF knew at the time that all these partially observed principles would be observed once Solvency II came into effect. They have come into effect. The transposing instrument of Solvency II has given us those powers because it has changed groups of provision.

In my opening statement, I stated most of our domestic and non-life insurance companies belong to international groups, such as AXA and Allianz. Groups of provision are much strengthened by Solvency II. When we are the group supervisor, we have those powers. When we are not, our counterparts have them.