The eyes of UK insurers may be firmly fixed on the push by the Treasury to persuade the Prudential Regulation Authority to loosen some of the strict rules inherited from Solvency II but elsewhere in the world the debate is moving on. In doing so, it has opened a fault line between US insurers and their European counterparts.

The general insurance and long-term savings industry is making significant progress in setting transparent net zero targets but needs to “take the hand brake off”, says Andy Briggs Chair, CEO, Phoenix Group and chair of the Association of British Insurers’ Climate Change Committee.

The World Economic Forum in Davos may have moved from the depths of winter to the spring but its mood has rarely been gloomier, writes Contributing Editor David Worsfold.

The announcement in this week’s Queen’s Speech that there will be a new Financial Services and Markets Bill to make the UK a more attractive place to invest by “cutting red tape” comes hard on the heels of the Treasury’s announcement at the end of last month of its proposals for post-Brexit reform of Solvency II. 

The challenges of investing in the myriad of new infrastructure assets was the focus of the recent Insurance Investment Exchange roundtable entitled ‘The New Economy: Opportunities in net zero, data and social infrastructure’, writes Contributing Editor David Worsfold.

The UK Treasury has launched a Transition Plan Taskforce to develop "rigorous and robust” measures to tackle greenwashing and intensify the scrutiny of corporate plans to transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.