Insurance.

Last week I spoke at the European Insurance Forum in Dublin. This two day event was also addressed by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese and by insurance and reinsurance experts from all over the world. The new EU wide system of measuring the solvency of insurers, Solvency Two, was discussed in depth.

There was concern at proposals in the United States to introduce protectionist measures into the reinsurance market . Reinsurance is about the initial insurer laying off risks and spreading the risk more widely by selling it on to others insurers. Protectionist measures would be self defeating because by limiting the capacity to spread risks internationally they would increase the possibility of failure.