💰🔒EIOPA’s Crypto Clampdown: Insurers Beware!💣

In a grand spectacle of regulatory might, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has decreed that insurers with crypto holdings must dance to a stricter tune. 🎶

With a flourish of the pen, the regulator has advised the European Commission to slap a 100% capital requirement on digital assets held by these insurance companies. Let’s see who’s still smiling when the crypto bubble bursts! 😏

No matter how insurers sugarcoat their crypto holdings on the balance sheet, or whether they’re directly or indirectly in bed with digital assets, the proposed rule will bite them all. Equality in regulation, folks! 🌟

“Today, EIOPA published its technical advice, recommending a one-to-one capital requirement for all crypto holdings of EU (re)insurers. Because, why not make it a fair game?”

The regulator believes that capital requirements should encapsulate the risks of crypto assets, including their wild price swings, market manipulation, and the fact that they’re about as transparent as a brick wall. 🧱

“EIOPA deems a 100% haircut in the standard formula to be prudent. After all, these assets are as volatile as a lit fuse!”

Despite the hoopla, EIOPA concedes that insurance companies in the region have barely dipped their toes in the crypto pool. In the last quarter of 2023, EU insurers invested a mere €655 million in the asset, which is peanuts compared to their €9.6 trillion in total assets. 🐭

“Crypto-assets? Just a drop in the insurance ocean.”

According to the Financial Times, EU insurers currently allocate capital equal to 60% to 80% of the value of their crypto assets. But watch out, the big bad EIOPA is coming for the rest! 🏰

Read More

2025-03-30 22:01