SIX Launches Solvency II Service With Comprehensive CIC Coverage

Data services provider SIX Financial Information has launched a service to help asset managers and insurers comply with Solvency II, by supplying more than 120 data points required by the European Union directive on capital adequacy and risk management for insurers.

The service includes a range of new attributes, including pre-legal entity identifiers (pre-LEIs), NACE industrial classification codes and the Global Industry Classification Standard. SIX is also providing the Complementary Identifier Code (CIC), a new asset classification schema specific to Solvency II that is intended to identify different asset types and the risk associated with them.

"We can provide our interpretation of the CIC itself based on two things," says Darren Marsh, London-based senior product manager at SIX Financial Information. "One is the prefix that determines in which country the instrument is listed or whether it is not listed—because it is unlisted or not tradable. The second part is defining the high-level asset class, but also the underlying risk of that asset, because this is the thing that the regulators want to analyze within organizations. They want insurers to demonstrate they understand what the intrinsic risk is within particular assets."

SIX is providing CICs at the instrument level to capture regulated markets under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, covering more than 5.5 million instruments. SIX will also provide CICs at the individual listing level. "The reason for that is, in the final guidelines, the regulator talks about group reporting and the potential for different subsidiaries of an insurance company to provide different market valuations, based on the listings where they actually purchased the asset," says Marsh.

SIX has been working with its clients on developing the offering for the past 18 months. Marsh says a number of firms halted their implementation projects because of delays to the implementation of Solvency II, but agreement on the Omnibus II directive earlier this month has created certainty that Solvency II will be transposed into national law in March 2015.

"That has focused the market, and we are certainly seeing a lot more activity," says Marsh. "We are getting a lot more requests. So it just seems the perfect time for everyone to meet these challenges together."