You know how every advert for something financial in Ireland always ends with “ we are regulated by the financial regulator” – well that is something you will not hear at the end of a VHI advert.
VHI – the state owned health insurance body – has again managed to avoid coming under regulation by the Financial Regulator. The proposed date for regulation to be put in place for VHI has been postponed by the Government until January 1st, 2012. If they were to come under financial regulation – they would be probably fail under solvency rules.
The Irish Government faces court action by the European Commission for failing to implement an adequate regulatory regime to oversee the State-owned VHI.
This is at least the fourth deadline set by the Irish Government for such a move. All previous deadlines have been missed. They initially set a date of September 1st 2009 for the State-owned company to be authorised by the regulator – a deadline that was later extended to December 31st and subsequently to March 31st 2010.
With Quinn Insurance in administration because of poor solvency – and now VHI failing again to meet regulatory requirements – the only health insurance company in Ireland that seems to be in good financial order and regulated and authorised by the Financial Regulator is Aviva .
Aviva Group Ireland plc is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aviva Group plc, the world’s fifth-largest insurance group and the biggest in the UK with 55,000 employees serving over 50 million customers worldwide.