The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released the final prudential standards for the life and general insurance capital requirements, signalling the completion of its sector review.
The prudential regulator released an information package to the market yesterday containing a response paper and the final standards.
In finalising the composition of the capital base requirements, APRA considered feedback from the insurance industry and from other stakeholders where relevant, APRA member Ian Laughlin said.
"Taking the package as a whole, the feedback from the latest round of submissions was mainly focused on relatively minor and technical matters, as might be expected at the end of a multi-year consultation process," Laughlin said.
"A small number of amendments have been made in response to improve the clarity of APRA's requirements."
The revised capital framework will take effect from 1 January 2013, with reporting commencing in 2013 for reporting periods ending on or after 1 January 2013.
"Industry is working towards implementation of the revised framework by the commencement date. We encourage insurers to discuss any implementation issues with APRA as early as possible," he said.
The final reporting forms and instructions are expected to be released later this month.
The paper outlines APRA's response to submissions on its proposals on the composition of the capital base and also sets out a small number of other minor refinements.
APRA commenced its review in 2010 and has been consulting extensively with industry and other stakeholders.
