Background

Last Friday in California, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was shut down by its local regulator and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was appointed as receiver. Urgent regulatory action to prevent systemic risk in the USA and UK has followed.

The Reserve Bank has published a consultation paper on insurance solvency standards: the quality of capital and regulatory treatment of financial reinsurance. The paper outlines the attributes the Reserve Bank expects to see in regulatory capital instruments, such as permanence and the ability to absorb losses, and proposes consequential clarifications to the solvency standards to reflect these expectations.