2nd conference “ solvency ii and small and medium - sized insurers ” welcome address salvatore rossi – president of ivass bank of italy ’ s congress centre rome, 3 march 2017 ladies and gentlemen, i am delighted to welcome you all to this conference. i want to thank gabriel bernardino, president of the european insurance and occupational pensions authority ( eiopa ), and all the other panelists, for kindly accepting our invitation. this is the second conference we hold in ivass on solvency ii. this time we decided to focus on a specific topic, the effects of the new prudential framework on small and medium - sized insurers – smis from now on. after gabriel ’ s keynote speech we will have two panels : the first one will have a more international flavor, while the second one, opened by bianca maria farina, president of the italian insurance association ( ania ), will be focused on the italian market. the panelists are well known representatives of both the supervisory community and the industry. the moderators will be karel van hulle, one of the founders of the solvency ii framework, former head of the insurance unit at the european commission, and ferdinando giugliano, journalist and economic commentator. alberto corinti, member of the board of ivass and of the management board of eiopa, will offer some concluding remarks. why a conference on small and medium - sized insurers? i gave some hints last june, when presenting ivass annual report. at that time only few months had passed since solvency ii entered into force, but we could already notice how difficult this new world had become for small companies. solvency ii pursues the objective – i said in june – of creating a risk - sensitive prudential regime for all and of incentivizing good corporate governance. to this end it has introduced three pillars of new rules : 1 ) some very complex methods for calculating the capital requirement ; 2 ) a minimum, but still high, level of organizational requirements ; 3 ) and a detailed information system, over and beyond balance - sheet reporting obligations. smaller firms are finding the investment consequently needed in human, technological and organizational capital something of a burden. even the imf has many concerns. its report the insurance sector : trends and systemic risk implications issued in april 2016 1 saw a clear tendency by small companies to run more risks, also in an attempt to cover the growing costs of compliance with rules that have

authorities and of the private sector, and to take concrete action. to protect the financial system from the threats posed by quantum computing, the bank of italy is proposing – in the context of the ongoing work on risks from emerging technologies affecting the financial system that is being carried out in the g7 finance track – that g7 member countries jointly develop a'common roadmap for quantum resilience ', providing a unified policy framework for the actions needed to steer the transition to a quantum - safe financial system through an international cooperation approach. the roadmap should include all initiatives that are essential for a quantum - resilient financial system and could be implemented under the responsibility of different multinational organizations. the monitoring, coordination and governance of the overall roadmap should be undertaken at the highest political level. for example, a shared response at the level of g7 countries would provide a benchmark that could outline the way forward for other jurisdictions so as to cover, eventually, the global financial system. whichever migration path we decide to adopt, it has to fulfil certain requirements. first, it needs to build on existing regulation in order to capitalize on best practices and, possibly, avoid over - regulation. second, it will entail the standardization of the approaches taken to risk mitigation across jurisdictions, so as to enable synergies and speed up the transition, as the suppliers of technical solutions will work based on shared guidelines. 4 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches third, financial industry players as well as hardware and software providers must participate in the design of the strategy. their involvement is necessary in order to devise a way forward that hinges on the best and most up - to - date technologies in a field where innovation is characterized by sudden accelerations. fourth, preservation of interoperability and quality of services must remain the guiding principle of this transition process together with its gradual and safe implementation and with the principle of proportionality, to strike a balance between short - term fixes and long - term solutions. continuous monitoring of the progress achieved and of the resources absorbed in this endeavour will be important : on this basis, the roadmap commitments can be reassessed along the way, including with respect to the timeline, by accelerating or delaying some milestones as needed. finally, international coordination is a key aspect. the g7 cyber expert group could be the right forum for operatively managing the quantum resilience migration roadmap, as well as for drafting policy guidelines