Main characteristics of the insurance companies audit

Author:Nicolas ROBERT

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Keywords:audit committee, governance management, statutory audit, specific regulations Solvency 2

Abstract:
In his presentation, the speaker discussed the audit characteristics in the project perspective.\r\n\r\nThe Solvency 2 Project has a directive on the insurance companies solvency. In this project the European public powers want for the auditors to have the capacity to issue judgemenets on the insurance companies with independence.\r\n\r\nSolvency 2, still debated in Europe, is supported by three pillars. First, a quantitative approach, how many funds are needed in order to practice as insurer. The second pillar, a qualitative approach, how the governance is structured in a company and how the supervising authority supervise the activity of the insurers. And the third pilar is about the transparency of what the insurance companies should publish. We are talking about a short horizon because this Solvency 2 should be published before 2010-2012, which is a very short pweriod of time for the insurance companies. This is an element of safety for the auditor, As the auditor is an element of safety for Solvency 2 Project, because the auditor is independent of management and because of this reason the supervising authoritis which are working on this project are aware of this and they are interested for the auditor to work at best standards.

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