Solvency II: Capital instrument issuance by holding company

Q&A

Read aloud

Question:

What, as a minimum, must an insurance holding company or mixed financial holding company be able to demonstrate in order for an issuable capital instrument to be considered unencumbered at group level?

Published: 27 July 2015

Answer:

If an insurance holding company or mixed financial holding company issues a capital instrument, it must be able to demonstrate that the capital instrument is free from encumbrances at group level and is not connected with any other transaction that could impair the quality of the instrument (Article 333(1), under b, of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/35 (Solvency II)).

Taking into account recital 127 of the delegated regulation, we will consider this requirement to be satisfied at any rate if, in the case of the winding-up of an insurance or reinsurance undertaking belonging to the group, the claims arising from a capital instrument issued by an insurance holding company or mixed financial holding company rank after the claims of all policy holders and beneficiaries of the insurance or reinsurance undertaking.

This means that, if an insurance or reinsurance undertaking belonging to the group is wound up, repayment of the instruments must be suspended until the interests of policy holders and beneficiaries of that insurance or reinsurance undertaking have been satisfied or are satisfactorily addressed.

An insurance holding company or mixed financial holding company must be able to demonstrate that its capital instruments satisfy this requirement, for example by ensuring that this is explicitly laid down in the terms of the capital instrument.

Base law

Guidelines 2009/138/EG
(Refers to an external site)

Solvency II (including “Omnibus II”)
(Refers to an external site)

Discover related articles

Q&A

Capital

Capital requirements

Insurers

Share:

Share on LinkedIn

Share on X

Share on Facebook

Share via Email

Interesting articles

Dutch insurers and pension funds have been investing more in private assets in recent years

15 July 2026

News item supervision

Dutch insurers and pension funds are investing more and more in private assets, such as private equity and private credit. By 2025, they had a combined total of €276 billion worth of these investments on their books.

Read more
Dutch insurers and pension funds have been investing more in private assets in recent years

News item supervision

15 July 2026

De Nederlandsche Bank publishes ‘Integrity Supervision in Focus 2026’

25 June 2026

News item supervision

In the third edition of ‘Integrity Supervision in Focus’ (ISF), we share the key insights from our integrity supervision.

Read more
De Nederlandsche Bank publishes ‘Integrity Supervision in Focus 2026’

News item supervision

25 June 2026

DNB email on technical adjustments

25 June 2026

News item supervision

This week, you may receive an email from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). This email concerns technical adjustments required to continue corresponding with DNB by email.

Read more
DNB email on technical adjustments

News item supervision

25 June 2026

Update FATF-warning lists June 2026

23 June 2026

News item supervision

FATF released an update of its ‘grey’ and ‘black’ lists.

Read more
Update FATF-warning lists June 2026

News item supervision

23 June 2026

Necessary cookies

To ensure the proper operation of the website, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) uses functional cookies and analytics cookies, and has taken measures to ensure that these cookies have little or no impact on the privacy of website users.

Optional cookies

Some pages include embedded content from external websites. These websites may use proprietary (tracking) cookies. This allows third parties to track visitor statistics, show personalised content and display targeted ads, for example.

You can make your choice about allowing these optional cookies both when you first visit the website and when you navigate to a page with embedded content.